SMB Over QUIC: A Performance Evaluation

The ever-growing usage and adaptation of HTTP/3 in web traffic leverages Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC) as a transport protocol. QUIC is widely recognized for reduced latency, enhanced security, and improved performance compared to TCP or UDP. Although known primarily for HTTP/3, QUIC also exhibits versatility for other applications, such as file transfers. In this paper, Microsoft's implementation of SMB over QUIC is evaluated and compared with traditional SMB over TCP. The measurements emphasize protocol behavior under low network congestion and examine resource utilization, including CPU and memory load, on both client and server. By contrasting SMB over QUIC with SMB over TCP, potential advantages and trade-offs of adopting QUIC for enterprise file sharing are identified. The results offer insights into the performance characteristics of QUIC within file transfer scenarios and contribute to the overall understanding of QUIC's practical applications, providing guidance for optimizing file transfer systems.