QUIC Alternative Server Address Frames

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

QUIC supports client-initiated connection migration, allowing a connection to survive changes to the client's address and enabling the client to select among available paths (Section 9 of [RFC9000]). A server can advertise a preferred address during the handshake (Section 9.6 of [RFC9000]), but cannot update that address or advertise additional addresses during the connection.¶

Some deployments have multiple server addresses whose availability or relative preference can change over the lifetime of a connection. These include multihomed endpoints, relays, proxies, and peer-to-peer systems.¶

This document defines an extension that allows a server to advertise a prioritized and replaceable set of alternative addresses. The client remains responsible for validating these addresses and initiating any connection migration.¶

Address discovery and NAT traversal mechanisms, including hole punching, are out of scope of this document.¶

2. Conventions and Definitions

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶

3. Negotiating Extension Use

Clients advertise their support of this extension by sending the alternative_address (0xff0969d85c) transport parameter (Section 7.4 of [RFC9000]) with an empty value. Sending this transport parameter signals to the server that the client understands the ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frame.¶

Servers MUST NOT send this transport parameter. A client that supports this extension and receives this transport parameter MUST abort the connection with a TRANSPORT_PARAMETER_ERROR.¶

A server MUST NOT remember a client's use of this transport parameter for 0-RTT in a subsequent connection.¶

4. Path Validation

Advertising an alternative address does not create a new path or initiate connection migration. As in Section 9 of [RFC9000], clients remain responsible for initiating all connection migrations. A client initiates path validation by sending probing packets to an advertised address and only migrates after validation succeeds. Packets from unadvertised server addresses are handled as specified by RFC 9000, except while validating an advertised address as described below. Such packets do not create new paths.¶

The response to a client-initiated PATH_CHALLENGE can arrive from a server address other than the address being validated. Section 8.2.2 of [RFC9000] requires the server to send the PATH_RESPONSE on the path where it received the PATH_CHALLENGE, but prohibits the client from enforcing this requirement. A matching PATH_RESPONSE received on any path validates the path on which the PATH_CHALLENGE was sent (Section 8.2.3 of [RFC9000]). The server might also send a PATH_CHALLENGE to validate the path in its sending direction. Consequently, while validating an advertised address, a client MUST NOT discard a successfully authenticated probing packet solely because it was received from an unadvertised server address. Processing the packet does not validate its source address or make that address eligible for migration.¶

5. Alternative Address Frame

A server uses an ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frame to advertise its complete set of alternative addresses and their priority relative to the current path. Each frame replaces the state established by any previously processed ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frame.¶

The frame uses the following format, following the conventions described in Section 12.4 of [RFC9000]:¶

ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS Frame {
  Type (i) = 0x1d5845e2,
  Sequence Number (i),
  Entry Count (i),
  Address Entry (..) ...,
}

The Entry Count field contains the number of Address Entries in the frame. An Address Entry starts with a variable-length integer Address Type and has one of the following formats:¶

CURRENT_PATH Entry {
  Address Type (i) = 0x00,
}

IPV4 Entry {
  Address Type (i) = 0x01,
  Priority Hint (i),
  IPv4 Address (32),
  IPv4 Port (16),
}

IPV6 Entry {
  Address Type (i) = 0x02,
  Priority Hint (i),
  IPv6 Address (128),
  IPv6 Port (16),
}

The Priority Hint field is a QUIC variable-length integer. On each side of the CURRENT_PATH entry, lower values indicate higher priority and entries with the same value form a priority group in which the server expresses no preference. Entries on each side MUST appear in ascending Priority Hint order. Priority Hint values have meaning only relative to other values on the same side of the CURRENT_PATH entry; values on opposite sides are unrelated. A server can assign the same value to every entry.¶

The CURRENT_PATH entry is a sentinel representing the server address of the current path and carries no priority hint, address, or port. A frame MUST contain exactly one CURRENT_PATH entry and MUST contain each IP address and port tuple at most once. Receipt of a frame that fails either of these requirements, does not order entries as required, or contains an unknown Address Type MUST be treated as a connection error of type FRAME_ENCODING_ERROR.¶

IPV4 and IPV6 entries before CURRENT_PATH have higher priority than the current path. The client SHOULD promptly validate these addresses and migrate to a validated address. Entries after CURRENT_PATH are backup addresses. The client MAY validate paths to these addresses, but SHOULD NOT migrate to one solely because it was advertised.¶

Priority hints are advisory. A client MAY use them to decide which addresses to validate, which validations to perform in parallel, and which validated address to use. A client MAY disregard priority hints based on local policy.¶

A server MUST use a larger Sequence Number for each address-set update. A client MUST ignore an ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frame whose Sequence Number is not greater than that of the most recently processed ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frame. Therefore, a newer frame atomically replaces an older address set even if the frames are received out of order. An address omitted from the newer frame is no longer advertised by this extension. The client SHOULD stop probing or using a non-current path associated with an address that is no longer advertised.¶

ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frames are ack-eliciting and MUST be sent only in the application data packet number space.¶

6. Connection ID Management

Each endpoint SHOULD advertise an active_connection_id_limit that allows its peer to supply enough connection IDs for all paths that the endpoint might probe concurrently. This applies in both directions.¶

The server SHOULD ensure that the client has a sufficient number of available and unused connection IDs, as the client will be unable to probe paths without an unused connection ID. The server MAY bundle one or more NEW_CONNECTION_ID frames with an ALTERNATIVE_ADDRESS frame. Likewise, the client SHOULD ensure that the server has enough connection IDs to probe new paths.¶

7. Interaction with Managing Multiple Paths for a QUIC Connection

The mechanism described in [I-D.ietf-quic-multipath] enables a QUIC connection to use multiple paths simultaneously. This extension complements that mechanism by allowing the server to advertise addresses for alternative paths.¶

8. Security Considerations

9. IANA Considerations

10. References

Acknowledgments

TODO acknowledge.¶

Questions

• Any new security considerations from allowing a dynamically chosen preferred address?¶

Authors' Addresses