Benchmarking HTTP/2 vs. HTTP/3

Microsoft Computer Science, 2020–21

Liaison(s): Mohit Suley, Arunothia Marappan (Fall), Amiya Gupta (Spring)
Advisor(s): Geoff Kuenning
Students(s): Nat Efrat-Henrici (PM-F), Jacob Boerma (PM-S), Ke Jin, Nette Mashewske, Loise Velazquez

Web browsers fetch information using the popular HTTP/2 protocol, which is limited by the TCP/IP transport protocol. A new version, HTTP/3, uses the QUIC protocol, which introduces new approaches that promise measurable performance improvements. However, theoretical benefits don’t always translate to the real world. We measured the protocols’ actual behavior, especially with regard to how mobile users experience the Internet. We built a testing framework and then quantified the performance of the two standards.