So now it's time to look at QUIC as a protocol and
learn more about its core fundamentals.
So how long has QUIC been around?
Well, back in 2012,
Google first began to develop its own proprietary protocol for
speeding up connectivity to its services.
Now this protocol was called GQUIC or Google QUIC,
but this time it actually was an acronym, and that acronym
means QUIC UDP Internet Connections, or QUIC.
Now Google was in an excellent position to do this since they
already had direct development of both the server side and the
client side with the Chrome browser.
Since both Google Services and the Chrome browser had wide adoption,
it wasn't as difficult to experiment with QUIC as a transport method,
which Google started to do for end users,
mostly under the hood, back in 2013.
Not today, if you use Chrome or a Chrome‑based
browser to any of Google services, including YouTube,
you are definitely using QUIC. So let's move forward in time 4
years as this protocol began to develop. As Google started to see
success with this new transport method,
they approached the IETF in 2016 so that the protocol could be further
developed and standardized for broader implementation.
Now the IETF went ahead and formed a working group and created the
pathway forward to standardize QUIC for the whole world.
Now by early 2021, the QUIC protocol had changed significantly from
the original spec designed by Google back in 2012.
But as a formal standard,
it's poised to be implemented by even more services across the internet and other applications.