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Compression Extensions for WebSocket
draft-ietf-hybi-permessage-compression-06

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7692.
Author Takeshi Yoshino
Last updated 2013-03-12
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
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Stream WG state Submitted to IESG for Publication
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Responsible AD Barry Leiba
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Send notices to hybi-chairs@tools.ietf.org, draft-ietf-hybi-permessage-compression@tools.ietf.org
draft-ietf-hybi-permessage-compression-06
HyBi Working Group                                            T. Yoshino
Internet-Draft                                              Google, Inc.
Intended status: Standards Track                          March 13, 2013
Expires: September 14, 2013

                  Compression Extensions for WebSocket
               draft-ietf-hybi-permessage-compression-06

Abstract

   This document specifies a framework for creating WebSocket extensions
   that add compression functionality to the WebSocket Protocol.
   Extensions based on this framework compress the payload data portion
   of non-control WebSocket messages on per-message basis using a
   specified compression algorithm.  One reserved bit RSV1 in the
   WebSocket frame header is allocated to control application of
   compression for each message.  This document also specifies one
   specific compression extension using the DEFLATE algorithm.

   Please send feedback to the hybi@ietf.org mailing list.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 14, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents

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   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Conformance Requirements and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  WebSocket Per-message Compression Extension  . . . . . . . . .  5
   4.  Extension Negotiation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.1.  Negotiation Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   5.  Framing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     5.1.  Sending  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     5.2.  Receiving  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   6.  permessage-deflate extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     6.1.  Method Parameters  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       6.1.1.  Context Takeover Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       6.1.2.  Limiting the LZ77 sliding window size  . . . . . . . . 10
       6.1.3.  Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     6.2.  Payload Data Transformation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       6.2.1.  Compression  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       6.2.2.  Decompression  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       6.2.3.  Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     6.3.  Intermediaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     6.4.  Implementation Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   8.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     8.1.  Registration of the "permessage-deflate" WebSocket
           Extension Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     8.2.  Registration of the "Per-message Compressed" WebSocket
           Framing Header Bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   9.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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1.  Introduction

   This document specifies a framework to apply a compression algorithm
   to octets exchanged over the WebSocket Protocol [RFC6455].  This
   framework uses the extension concept for the WebSocket Protocol is
   introduced in the Section 9 of [RFC6455].  By specifying basic
   extension negotiation process excluding algorithm specific extension
   parameters in detail and a general method of transforming contents of
   WebSocket messages using a compression algorithm, this framework
   allows us to define WebSocket Per-message Compression Extensions
   (PMCEs) to the WebSocket Protocol individually for various
   compression algorithms.  A WebSocket client and a WebSocket server
   negotiate use of a PMCE and determines parameters to configure the
   compression algorithm during the WebSocket opening handshake.  The
   client and server then exchange non-control messages using frames
   with compressed data in the payload data portion.  Documents
   specifying individual PMCEs describe how to negotiate parameters and
   how to transform octets in the payload data portion.  A WebSocket
   client may offer multiple PMCEs during the WebSocket opening
   handshake.  The WebSocket server received those offers may choose and
   accept preferred one from them.  PMCEs use the RSV1 bit of the
   WebSocket frame header to indicate whether the message is compressed
   or not, so that we can choose not to compress messages with
   incompressible contents.

   This document also specifies one specific PMCE based on the DEFLATE
   [RFC1951] algorithm.  The extension name of the PMCE is "permessage-
   deflate".  We chose the DEFLATE since it's widely available as a
   library on various platforms and the overhead of the DEFLATE is
   small.  To align the end of compressed data to octet boundary, this
   extension uses the algorithm described in the Section 2.1 of the PPP
   Deflate Protocol [RFC1979].  Endpoints can take over the LZ77 sliding
   window [LZ77] used to build frames for previous messages to get
   better compression ratio.  For resource-limited devices, this
   extension provides parameters to limit memory usage for compression
   context.

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2.  Conformance Requirements and Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

   Requirements phrased in the imperative as part of algorithms (such as
   "strip any leading space characters" or "return false and abort these
   steps") are to be interpreted with the meaning of the key word
   ("MUST", "SHOULD", "MAY", etc.) used in introducing the algorithm.

   Conformance requirements phrased as algorithms or specific steps can
   be implemented in any manner, so long as the end result is
   equivalent.  In particular, the algorithms defined in this
   specification are intended to be easy to understand and are not
   intended to be performant.

   This document references the procedure to _Fail the WebSocket
   Connection_.  This procedure is defined in the Section 7.1.7 of
   [RFC6455].

   This document references the event that _the WebSocket Connection is
   established_.  This event is defined in the Section 4.1 of [RFC6455].

   This document uses the Argumented Backus-Naur Form (ABNF) notation of
   [RFC5234].  The DIGIT (decimal 0-9) rule is included by reference, as
   defined in the Appendix B.1 of [RFC5234].

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3.  WebSocket Per-message Compression Extension

   WebSocket Per-message Compression Extensions (PMCEs) are individually
   defined for various compression algorithms, and are registered in the
   WebSocket Extension Name Registry.  Each PMCE refers to this
   framework and defines:

   o  The content to put in the "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header,
      including the extension name of the PMCE and any applicable
      extension parameters

   o  How to interpret extension parameters exchanged during the opening
      handshake

   o  How to transform payload data portion of messages.

   One such extension is defined in Section 6 of this document and is
   registered in Section 8.  Other PMCEs may be defined in other
   documents.

   PMCEs operate only on non-control messages.

   This document allocates the RSV1 bit of the WebSocket header for
   PMCEs, and calls the bit the "Per-message Compressed" bit.  This bit
   indicates whether the compression method is applied to the contents
   of the message or not.  An endpoint MUST NOT offer or accept use of
   any other extension using the RSV1 bit together with a PMCE.  The
   "Per-message Compressed" bit MUST NOT be set on control frames and
   non-first fragments of a data message.  Messages with the
   "Per-message Compressed" bit set (only on the first fragment if the
   message is fragmented) are called "compressed messages" and have
   compressed data in their payload data portion.  Messages with the
   "Per-message Compressed" bit unset are called "uncompressed messages"
   and have uncompressed data in their payload data portion.

   A server MUST NOT accept a PMCE offer together with a non-PMCE
   extension if the PMCE will be applied to output of the non-PMCE and
   any of the following conditions is met:

   o  Frame boundary of frames output by the non-PMCE extension needs to
      be preserved.

   o  The non-PMCE uses the "Extension data" field or any of the
      reserved bits on the WebSocket header as per-frame attribute.

   Section 4 describes basic extension negotiation process.  Section 5
   describes how to apply the compression algorithm with negotiated
   parameters to the contents of WebSocket messages.

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4.  Extension Negotiation

   To offer use of a PMCE, a client includes a
   "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header element with the extension name of
   the offered PMCE in the "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header in the
   client's opening handshake of the WebSocket connection.  Extension
   parameters in the element represent the PMCE offer in detail for
   example by listing capability of the client and preferred values for
   the algorithm's configuration parameters to use.  A client offers
   multiple PMCE choices to the server by including multiple elements,
   one for each PMCE offered.  The set of elements MAY include multiple
   PMCEs with the same extension name to offer use of the same algorithm
   with different configurations.

   To accept use of an offered PMCE, a server includes a
   "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header element with the extension name of
   the offered extension in the "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header in the
   server's opening handshake of the WebSocket connection.  Extension
   parameters in the element represent the configuration parameters of
   the PMCE to use in detail.  The element MUST represent a PMCE that is
   fully supported by the server.  The server rejects all offered PMCEs
   by not including any element with PMCE names, in which case the
   connection proceeds without Per-message Compression.

   If the server responds with no PMCE element in the
   "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header and _the WebSocket Connection is
   established_, both endpoints MUST proceed without Per-message
   Compression.  If the server gives an invalid response, such as
   accepting a PMCE that the client did not offer, the client MUST _Fail
   the WebSocket Connection_.

   If the server responds with a valid PMCE element in the
   "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header and _the WebSocket Connection is
   established_, both endpoints MUST use the algorithm described in
   Section 5 to exchange messages, using the payload data transformation
   procedure of the PMCE returned by the server.

4.1.  Negotiation Examples

   The followings are example values for the "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions"
   header offering PMCEs. permessage-foo and permessage-bar in the
   examples are hypothetical extension names of PMCEs for compression
   algorithm foo and bar.

   o  Offer the permessage-foo.

          permessage-foo

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   o  Offer the permessage-foo with a parameter x with a value of 10.

          permessage-foo; x=10

      The value MAY be quoted.

          permessage-foo; x="10"

   o  Offer the permessage-foo as first choice and the permessage-bar as
      a fallback plan.

          permessage-foo, permessage-bar

   o  Offer the permessage-foo with a parameter use_y which enables a
      feature y as first choice, and the permessage-foo without the
      use_y parameter as a fallback plan.

          permessage-foo; use_y, permessage-foo

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5.  Framing

5.1.  Sending

   An endpoint uses the following algorithm to compressed a message to
   send.

   1.  Compress the payload data portion of the message using the
       compression algorithm.

   2.  Build frame(s) for the message by putting the resulting octets
       instead of the original octets.

   3.  Set the "Per-message Compressed" bit of the first fragment to 1.

   PMCEs don't change the opcode field.  The payload data portion in
   outgoing frames output by a PMCE is not subject to the constraints
   for the original data type.  At the receiver, the payload data
   portion after decompressing is subject to the constraints for the
   original data type again.

   To send an uncompressed message, an endpoint sets the "Per-message
   Compressed" bit of the first fragment of the message to 0.  The
   payload data portion of the message is sent as-is without applying
   the compression.

5.2.  Receiving

   To receive a compressed message, an endpoint decompress the payload
   data portion in the frames of the message.

   An endpoint receives an uncompressed message as-is without
   decompression.

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6.  permessage-deflate extension

   This section specifies a specific PMCE called "permessage-deflate".
   It compresses the payload data portion of messages using the DEFLATE
   [RFC1951] and the byte boundary aligning method introduced in
   [RFC1979].

   The registered extension name for this extension is
   "permessage-deflate".

   The following 4 extension parameters are defined for this extension.

   o  "s2c_no_context_takeover"

   o  "c2s_no_context_takeover"

   o  "s2c_max_window_bits"

   o  "c2s_max_window_bits"

   A server MUST decline a "permessage-deflate" offer if any of the
   following conditions is met:

   o  The offer has any extension parameter unknown to the server.

   o  The offer has any extension parameter with an invalid value.

   o  The offer has multiple extension parameters with the same name.

   o  The server doesn't support the offered configuration.

   A client MUST _Fail the WebSocket Connection_ if the server accepted
   a "permessage-deflate" offer with a response meeting any of the
   following condition:

   o  The response has any extension parameter unknown to the client.

   o  The response has any extension parameter with an invalid value.

   o  The response has multiple extension parameters with the same name.

   o  The client doesn't support the configuration the response
      represents.

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6.1.  Method Parameters

6.1.1.  Context Takeover Control

   A client MAY attach the "s2c_no_context_takeover" extension
   parameter.  The "s2c_no_context_takeover" extension parameter has no
   value.  If a server received the "s2c_no_context_takeover" extension
   parameter, the server MUST NOT use the same LZ77 sliding window to
   compress two or more messages.  Servers SHOULD be able to accept the
   "s2c_no_context_takeover" parameter.  A server accepts an offer with
   this extension parameter by including the "s2c_no_context_takeover"
   extension parameter in the response.  If a server accepted an offer
   with this extension parameter, the server MUST empty its LZ77 sliding
   window to compress messages to send each time the server builds a new
   message.

   A server MAY attach the "c2s_no_context_takeover" extension parameter
   to disallow the client to use the LZ77 sliding window used to build
   frames for the last message the client sent to build frames for the
   next message to send.  The "c2s_no_context_takeover" extension
   parameter has no value.  Clients SHOULD be able to accept the
   "c2s_no_context_takeover" parameter.  A client that received this
   parameter MUST reset its LZ77 sliding window for sending to empty for
   each message.

6.1.2.  Limiting the LZ77 sliding window size

   A client MAY attach the "s2c_max_window_bits" extension parameter to
   limit the LZ77 sliding window size that the server uses to build
   messages.  This extension parameter MUST have a decimal integer value
   in the range between 8 to 15 indicating the base-2 logarithm of the
   LZ77 sliding window size.

       s2c_max_window_bits = 1*DIGIT

   A server declines an offer with this extension parameter if the
   server doesn't support the extension parameter.  A server accepts an
   offer with this extension parameter by including the extension
   parameter with the same value as the offer in the response.  If a
   server accepts an offer with this extension parameter, the server
   MUST NOT use LZ77 sliding window size greater than the size specified
   by the extension parameter to compress messages

   A client MAY attach the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter if
   the client can adjust LZ77 sliding window size based on the
   "c2s_max_window_bits" sent by the server.  This parameter has no
   value.

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   If a server received and accepts an offer with the
   "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter, the server MAY include the
   "c2s_max_window_bits" parameter in the response to the offer to limit
   the LZ77 sliding window size that the client uses to build messages.
   If a server received and accepts an offer without the
   "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter, the server MUST NOT
   include the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter in the response
   to the offer.  The "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter in the
   server's opening handshake MUST have a decimal integer value in the
   range between 8 to 15 indicating the base-2 logarithm of the LZ77
   sliding window size.

       c2s_max_window_bits = 1*DIGIT

   If a client received the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter,
   the client MUST NOT use LZ77 sliding window size greater than the
   size specified by the extension parameter to build messages.

6.1.3.  Example

   The simplest "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header in a client's opening
   handshake to offer use of the permessage-deflate is the following:

       Sec-WebSocket-Extensions: permessage-deflate

   Since the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter is not specified,
   the server may not accept the offer with the "c2s_max_window_bits"
   extension parameter.  The simplest "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header
   in a server's opening handshake to accept use of the permessage-
   deflate is the same.

   The following offer sent by a client is asking the server to use the
   LZ77 sliding window size of 1,024 bytes or less and declaring that
   the client can accept the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension parameter.

       Sec-WebSocket-Extensions:
           permessage-deflate;
           c2s_max_window_bits; s2c_max_window_bits=10

   This offer might be rejected by the server because the server doesn't
   support the "s2c_max_window_bits" extension parameter.  This is fine
   if the "s2c_max_window_bits" is mandatory for the client, but if the
   client want to fallback to the "permessage-deflate" without the
   "s2c_max_window_bits", the client should offer the fallback option in
   addition like this:

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       Sec-WebSocket-Extensions:
           permessage-deflate;
           c2s_max_window_bits; s2c_max_window_bits=10,
           permessage-deflate;
           c2s_max_window_bits

   This example offers two configurations so that the server can accept
   permessage-deflate by picking supported one from them.  To accept the
   first option, the server sends back this for example:

       Sec-WebSocket-Extensions:
           permessage-deflate; s2c_max_window_bits=10

   And to accept the second option, the server sends back this for
   example:

       Sec-WebSocket-Extensions: permessage-deflate

6.2.  Payload Data Transformation

6.2.1.  Compression

   An endpoint uses the following algorithm to compress a message.

   1.  Compress all the octets of the payload data portion of the
       message using the DEFLATE.

   2.  If the resulting data does not end with an empty DEFLATE block
       with no compression (the "BTYPE" bit is set to 0), append an
       empty DEFLATE block with no compression to the tail end.

   3.  Remove 4 octets (that are 0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff) from the tail end.
       After this step, the last octet of the compressed data contains
       (possibly part of) the DEFLATE header bits with the "BTYPE" bit
       set to 0.

   In using the DEFLATE in the first step above:

   o  An endpoints MAY use multiple DEFLATE blocks to compress one
      message.

   o  An endpoints MAY use DEFLATE blocks of any type.

   o  An endpoints MAY use both DEFLATE blocks with the "BFINAL" bit set
      to 0 and DEFLATE blocks with the "BFINAL" bit set to 1.

   o  When any DEFLATE block with the "BFINAL" bit set to 1 doesn't end
      at byte boundary, an endpoint adds minimal padding bits of 0 to

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      make it end at byte boundary.  The next DEFLATE block follows the
      padded data if any.

   An endpoint MUST NOT use an LZ77 sliding window longer than 32,768
   bytes to compress messages to send.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "c2s_no_context_takeover"
   extension parameter, the client MUST empty its LZ77 sliding window to
   compress messages to send each time the client compresses a new
   message to send.  Otherwise, the client MAY take over the LZ77
   sliding window used to build the last compressed message.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "s2c_no_context_takeover"
   extension parameter, the server MUST empty its LZ77 sliding window to
   compress messages to send each time the server compresses a new
   message to send.  Otherwise, the server MAY take over the LZ77
   sliding window used to build the last compressed message.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension
   parameter with a value of w, the client MUST NOT use an LZ77 sliding
   window longer than w-th power of 2 bytes to compress messages to
   send.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "s2c_max_window_bits" extension
   parameter with a value of w, the server MUST NOT use an LZ77 sliding
   window longer than w-th power of 2 bytes to compress messages to
   send.

6.2.2.  Decompression

   An endpoint uses the following algorithm to decompress a message.

   1.  Append 4 octets of 0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff to the tail end of the
       payload data portion of the message.

   2.  Decompress the resulting data using the DEFLATE.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "s2c_no_context_takeover"
   extension parameter, the client MAY empty its LZ77 sliding window to
   decompress received messages each time the client decompresses a new
   received message.  Otherwise, the client MUST take over the LZ77
   sliding window used to process the last compressed message.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "c2s_no_context_takeover"
   extension parameter, the server MAY empty its LZ77 sliding window to
   decompress received messages each time the server decompresses a new
   received message.  Otherwise, the server MUST take over the LZ77
   sliding window used to process the last compressed message.

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   If a server accepts an offer with the "s2c_max_window_bits" extension
   parameter with a value of w, the client MAY reduce the size of its
   LZ77 sliding window to decompress received messages down to the w-th
   power of 2 bytes.  Otherwise, the client MUST use a 32,768 byte LZ77
   sliding window to decompress received messages.

   If a server accepts an offer with the "c2s_max_window_bits" extension
   parameter with a value of w, the server MAY reduce the size of its
   LZ77 sliding window to decompress received messages down to the w-th
   power of 2 bytes.  Otherwise, the server MUST use a 32,768 byte LZ77
   sliding window to decompress received messages.

6.2.3.  Examples

   This section introduces examples of how the permessage-deflate
   transforms messages.

6.2.3.1.  A message compressed using 1 compressed DEFLATE block

   Suppose that an endpoint sends a text message "Hello".  If the
   endpoint uses 1 compressed DEFLATE block (compressed with fixed
   Huffman code and the "BFINAL" bit is not set) to compress the
   message, the endpoint obtains the compressed data to put in the
   payload data portion as follows.

   The endpoint compresses "Hello" into 1 compressed DEFLATE block and
   flushes the resulting data into a byte array using an empty DEFLATE
   block with no compression:

       0xf2 0x48 0xcd 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00 0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff

   By stripping 0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff from the tail end, the endpoint gets
   the data to put in the payload data portion:

       0xf2 0x48 0xcd 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00

   Suppose that the endpoint sends this compressed message without
   fragmentation.  The endpoint builds one frame by putting the whole
   compressed data in the payload data portion of the frame:

       0xc1 0x07 0xf2 0x48 0xcd 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00

   The first 2 octets (0xc1 0x07) are the WebSocket frame header (FIN=1,
   RSV1=1, RSV2=0, RSV3=0, opcode=text, MASK=0, Payload length=7).  The
   following figure shows what value is set in each field of the
   WebSocket frame header.

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        0                   1
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
       +-+-+-+-+-------+-+-------------+
       |F|R|R|R| opcode|M| Payload len |
       |I|S|S|S|       |A|             |
       |N|V|V|V|       |S|             |
       | |1|2|3|       |K|             |
       +-+-+-+-+-------+-+-------------+
       |1|1|0|0|   1   |0|      7      |
       +-+-+-+-+-------+-+-------------+

   Suppose that the endpoint sends the compressed message with
   fragmentation.  The endpoint splits the compressed data into
   fragments and builds frames for each fragment.  For example, if the
   fragments are 3 and 4 octet, the first frame is:

       0x41 0x03 0xf2 0x48 0xcd

   and the second frame is:

       0x80 0x04 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00

   Note that the RSV1 bit is set only on the first frame.

6.2.3.2.  Sharing LZ77 Sliding Window

   Suppose that a client has sent a message "Hello" as a compressed
   message and will send the same message "Hello" again as a compressed
   message.  If the server has accepted the offer with the
   "c2s_no_context_takeover" extension parameter, the server compresses
   the payload data portion of the next message into the same bytes (if
   the server uses the same "BTYPE" value and "BFINAL" value):

       0xf2 0x48 0xcd 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00

   If the server hasn't accepted the offer with the
   "c2s_no_context_takeover" extension parameter, the server can
   compress the payload data portion of the next message into shorter
   bytes utilizing the history in the LZ77 sliding window:

       0xf2 0x00 0x11 0x00 0x00

   Note that even if any uncompressed message (any message with the RSV1
   bit unset) is inserted between the two "Hello" messages, such a
   message doesn't make any change on the LZ77 sliding window.

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6.2.3.3.  Using a DEFLATE Block with No Compression

   Suppose that an endpoint compresses a text message "Hello" using a
   DEFLATE block with no compression.  A DEFLATE block with no
   compression containing "Hello" flushed into a byte array using
   another but empty DEFLATE block with no compression is:

       0x00 0x05 0x00 0xfa 0xff 0x48 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x6f 0x00
       0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff

   The endpoint strips the 4 octets at the tail end:

       0x00 0x05 0x00 0xfa 0xff 0x48 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x6f 0x00

   The endpoint builds a frame by putting the resulting data in the
   payload data portion of the frame:

       0xc1 0x0b 0x00 0x05 0x00 0xfa 0xff 0x48 0x65 0x6c 0x6c 0x6f 0x00

   The first 2 octets (0xc1 0x0b) are the WebSocket frame header (FIN=1,
   RSV1=1, RSV2=0, RSV3=0, opcode=text, MASK=0, Payload length=7).  Note
   that the RSV1 bit is set for this message (only on the first fragment
   if the message is fragmented) because the RSV1 bit is set when the
   DEFLATE is applied to the message and it includes the case only
   DEFLATE blocks with no compression are used.

6.2.3.4.  Using a DEFLATE Block with BFINAL Set to 1

   On platform where the flush method using an empty DEFLATE block with
   no compression is not avaiable, implementors can choose to flush data
   using DEFLATE blocks with "BFINAL" set to 1.  Using a DEFLATE block
   with "BFINAL" set to 1 and "BTYPE" set to 1, "Hello" is compressed
   into:

       0xf3 0x48 0xcd 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00

   So, payload of a message containing "Hello" compressed using this
   method is:

       0xf3 0x48 0xcd 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00 0x00

   The last 1 octet (0x00) contains the header bits with "BFINAL" set to
   0 and "BTYPE" set to 0, and 7 padding bits of 0.  This octet is
   necessary to allow the payload to be decompressed in the same manner
   as messages flushed using DEFLATE blocks with BFINAL unset.

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6.2.3.5.  Two DEFLATE Blocks in 1 Message

   Two or more DEFLATE blocks may be used in 1 message.

       0xf2 0x48 0x05 0x00 0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff 0xca 0xc9 0xc9 0x07 0x00

   The first 3 octets (0xf2 0x48 0x05) and the least significant two
   bits of the 4th octet (0x00) consist one DEFLATE block with "BFINAL"
   set to 0 and "BTYPE" set to 1 containing "He";.  The rest of the 4th
   octet contains the header bits with "BFINAL" set to 0 and "BTYPE" set
   to 0, and the 3 padding bits of 0.  Together with the following 4
   octets (0x00 0x00 0xff 0xff), the header bits consist an empty
   DEFLATE block with no compression.  A DEFLATE block containing "llo"
   follows the empty DEFLATE block.

6.3.  Intermediaries

   When an intermediary forwards messages, the intermediary MAY add,
   change or remove Per-message Compression on the messages.  The
   elements in the "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" for the PMCE in the
   opening handshakes with the connected client and server must be
   altered by the intermediary accordingly to match the new framing.

6.4.  Implementation Notes

   On most common software development platforms, their DEFLATE
   compression library provide a method to align compressed data to byte
   boundaries using an empty DEFLATE block with no compression.  For
   example, Zlib [Zlib] does this when "Z_SYNC_FLUSH" is passed to the
   deflate function.

   To attain sufficient compression ratio, the LZ77 sliding window size
   of 1,024 or more is RECOMMENDED.

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7.  Security Considerations

   There is a known exploit for combination of a secure transport
   protocol and a dictionary based compression [CRIME].  Implementors
   should give attention to this point when integrating this extension
   with other extensions or protocols.

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8.  IANA Considerations

8.1.  Registration of the "permessage-deflate" WebSocket Extension Name

   This section describes a WebSocket extension name registration in the
   WebSocket Extension Name Registry [RFC6455].

   Extension Identifier
      permessage-deflate

   Extension Common Name
      WebSocket Per-message Deflate

   Extension Definition
      This document.

   Known Incompatible Extensions
      None

   The "permessage-deflate" extension name is used in the
   "Sec-WebSocket-Extensions" header in the WebSocket opening handshake
   to negotiate use of the permessage-deflate extension.

8.2.  Registration of the "Per-message Compressed" WebSocket Framing
      Header Bit

   This section describes a WebSocket framing header bit registration in
   the WebSocket Framing Header Bits Registry [RFC6455].

   Header Bit
      RSV1

   Common Name
      Per-message Compressed

   Meaning
      The message is compressed or not.

   Reference
      Section 5 of this document.

   The "Per-message Compressed" framing header bit is used on the first
   fragment of non-control messages to indicate whether the payload data
   portion of the message is compressed by the PMCE or not.

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9.  Acknowledgements

   Special thanks to Patrick McManus who wrote up the initial
   specification of a DEFLATE-based compression extension for the
   WebSocket Protocol to which I referred to write this specification.

   Thank you to the following people who participated in discussions on
   the HyBi WG and contributed ideas and/or provided detailed reviews
   (the list is likely to be incomplete): Alexey Melnikov, Arman
   Djusupov, Bjoern Hoehrmann, Brian McKelvey, Greg Wilkins, Inaki Baz
   Castillo, Jamie Lokier, Joakim Erdfelt, John A. Tamplin, Julian
   Reschke, Kenichi Ishibashi, Mark Nottingham, Peter Thorson, Roberto
   Peon and Simone Bordet.  Note that people listed above didn't
   necessarily endorse the end result of this work.

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10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, January 2008.

   [RFC6455]  Fette, I. and A. Melnikov, "The WebSocket Protocol",
              RFC 6455, December 2011.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [LZ77]     Ziv, J. and A. Lempel, "A Universal Algorithm for
              Sequential Data Compression", IEEE Transactions on
              Information Theory, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 337-343.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC1951]  Deutsch, P., "DEFLATE Compressed Data Format Specification
              version 1.3", RFC 1951, May 1996.

   [RFC1979]  Woods, J., "PPP Deflate Protocol", RFC 1979, August 1996.

   [Zlib]     Gailly, J. and M. Adler, "Zlib", <http://zlib.net/>.

   [CRIME]    Rizzo, J. and T. Duong, "The CRIME attack", Ekoparty 2012,
              September 2012.

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Author's Address

   Takeshi Yoshino
   Google, Inc.

   Email: tyoshino@google.com

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