Media over QUIC - Lite (moq-lite)

draft-lcurley-moq-lite-05 | Expires 2027-01-01

2026-07-01: draft-lcurley-moq-lite-05 is now on the Datatracker (published June 30) — the -05 revision the wiki flagged “presumably forthcoming” since May 5 finally lands, and moq ships the matching wire the same 48 hours. Datatracker bumps -04 → -05 (2026-06-30, Informational, expires 2027-01-01), catching the published spec up to the Lite05 / DRAFT_05 wire version that has been in flight in moq-dev’s code since PR #1374 (May 4). On the implementation side, moq-dev landed a moq-lite-05 wire push across June 29–July 1: PR #1954 MERGED “moq-net: moq-lite-05 SETUP message + PATH parameter” (+828/−116), PR #1963 MERGED “moq-net: hook up rest of moq-lite-05 wire (TRACK_INFO, SUBSCRIBE_END, frame timestamps)” (+854/−64), and — a notable design pivot — PR #1962 MERGED “moq-net: drop per-frame compression, restore Publisher Max Latency to TRACK_INFO” (+149/−614), walking back the per-frame DEFLATE experiment (the code side of Luke’s June-26 “MoQ + Compression” thread) and restoring the max_latency filter to TRACK_INFO. So the published draft and the reference implementation are re-converged on the -05 wire. See moq-dev, discussions-2026-06.

lite-06 wire work has begun in code (2026-07-28) — still -05 on the Datatracker (no -06 submitted). moq merged PR #2550 “drop Exclude Hop from ANNOUNCE_REQUEST in lite-06” (+189/−98), the first in-code sign of a next moq-lite revision — the same in-code-before-Datatracker pattern the -05 wire followed. Watch the Datatracker for a draft-lcurley-moq-lite-06 submission.

Lite05 origin (historical): luke-curley opened moq-dev/moq PR #1374 on May 4 2026 22:57 UTC introducing wire version Lite05 / DRAFT_05 (ALPN moq-lite-05, code 0xff0dad05). Added an opt-in DATAGRAMS control stream 0x6 + QUIC datagram delivery (subscribe_id | sequence | payload, 1200B cap), 33ms publisher cache, per-subscriber max_latency filter. Spec text lives in the separate moq-wg/moq-drafts repo; the Datatracker -05 (June 30) is the published counterpart.

Author

• luke-curley (kixelated@gmail.com)

Abstract

moq-lite is a simplified protocol designed to fanout live content 1→N across the internet. It uses QUIC to prioritize important content during congestion while avoiding head-of-line blocking and respecting encoding dependencies. Though media-focused, the protocol is payload-agnostic and can be proxied by relays/CDNs without access to decryption keys or codec knowledge.

Relationship to moq-transport

moq-lite is explicitly derived from moq-transport. The author states: “This draft is based on MoqTransport. The concepts, motivations, and terminology are very similar.”

The key difference is design philosophy — moq-lite removes complexity by eliminating what it characterizes as “too many messages, optional modes, and half-baked features” in the full standard.

Key Simplifications (vs moq-transport)

• Stream-based architecture replaces request IDs
• Pull-only model — no unsolicited publishing
• Simplified FETCH — operates as single request/response (unlike moq-transport’s multi-group approach)
• Extension negotiation via stream probing rather than parameters
• Removed features: subgroups, object properties, datagrams, paused subscriptions, 30+ message types
• UTF-8 strings replace byte arrays for names
• Default subscriptions start at latest group automatically

Data Model

Hierarchical structure similar to moq-transport but simplified:

• Sessions — connections between client and server
• Broadcasts — collections of content from a single source
• Tracks — series of independent content groupings
• Groups — ordered sequences within tracks
• Frames — individual data units

Implementation

Luke Curley implements moq-lite in moq-dev (moq-dev/moq), with IETF adapter shims enabling interop with IETF-aligned implementations (draft-14 through draft-17).

Version History

Version	Date	Notes
draft-04	2026-04-09	Current
draft-03	2026-03-10	—
draft-02	2026-01-13	—
draft-01	2025-10-20	—
draft-00	2025-07-07	Initial submission

Status

Individual submission — not adopted by the MOQ working group. This draft represents Luke Curley’s alternative vision for the MOQ protocol, focusing on simplicity over the full feature set of moq-transport.

External Links

• Datatracker
• moq-dev/moq implementation
• Documentation

Related

• moq-transport — The IETF WG standard that moq-lite simplifies
• moq-dev — Implementation of moq-lite
• luke-curley — Author