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Innovation

Google speeds up data transfers with Quick UDP Internet connections

Google is always looking to get information faster to people browsing the web and after nearly two years of experimentation, one of its new protocols is paying off in Chrome.
Written by Kevin Tofel, Contributor

In June 2013, Google announced an experimental way to speed up web connections using what it calls QUIC, or Quick UDP Internet Connections. Now, the company says it has boosted the traffic its servers provide using QUIC and the results are promising.

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Instead of using the internet standard TCP and TLS approach, QUIC can reduce page load time and buffering because it requires fewer back-and-forth conversations between clients and a server. What's the secret sauce? QUIC establishes its connection with lower latency, particuarly for devices that connected to a particular web server or service in the past, says Google:

The standard way to do secure web browsing involves communicating over TCP + TLS, which requires 2 to 3 round trips with a server to establish a secure connection before the browser can request the actual web page. QUIC is designed so that if a client has talked to a given server before, it can can start sending data without any round trips, which makes web pages load faster.

Google says that approximately 50 percent of all requests from Chrome to Google servers are now served over QUIC, resulting in faster search results. QUIC's data loss recovery is reportedly improved over what TCP provides: Google notes that YouTube users report 30 percent less rebuffering when streaming video and experiencing some type of connection disruption.

The company plans to propose that QUIC be an official web standard in the future as it continues its experiment and makes additional improvements.

See also: Google's Chrome just got better on your iPhone or iPad

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