QUIC as a solution to protocol ossification
> <i>The first byte of the clear data was a flags field which, he said, was promptly ossified by a middlebox vendor, leading to packets being dropped when a new flag was set.<p>That was a classic example of why changing network protocols is hard and what needs to be done to improve the situation. Middleboxes are the control points for the Internet as we know it now. The only defense against ossification of network protocols by middleboxes, he said at the conclusion of the talk, is encryption.</i><p>So apparently we're now at a point where <i>any</i> middlebox trying to make any use of a protocol higher than IP counts as "ossification"? No matter if the middlebox is well-behaved or not.<p>And the only solution naturally is to make any stack parts higher than IP completely unusable by middleboxes by encrypting them. I guess this is make sense if you already fully control both clients and servers and get annoyed by middleboxes restricting your freedom to change the protocol on a whim.<p>However, this seems like a major change in the vision of the internet to me. So has the internet community at large now agreed that we want to get rid of middleboxes completely? What about middleboxes I want to employ myself, e.g. to watch my own traffic?