Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems

FAMIUM MoQ – Media over QUIC

One protocol for media contribution and distribution – sub-second latency at CDN scale, natively in the browser

The fragmented streaming landscape

Live-Konzert, Streaming, Laptop, zuhause
© iStock / seb_ra

No single protocol today covers contribution, distribution, low latency, scale and the web at once. HLS and DASH deliver high quality at CDN scale, but with 3 to 30 seconds of latency and for distribution only. WebRTC achieves ultra-low latency but does not scale beyond hundreds of participants per SFU and has no CDN distribution. Contribution protocols such as RTMP and SRT are proven for ingest, but proprietary or without web support and not designed for distribution.

Media over QUIC (MoQ) closes this gap: an IETF standards-track protocol that combines the latency of WebRTC, the scalability of HLS/DASH and the contribution capabilities of SRT in one open standard.

What is Media over QUIC

  • IETF standard for delivering media over QUIC transport (draft-ietf-moq-transport-18)
  • Publish/subscribe model with relay-based distribution – designed for sub-second latency at CDN scale
  • Two planes: a control plane (publish/subscribe) and a data plane (media objects)
  • Runs on QUIC: multiplexed streams without head-of-line blocking, 0-RTT connection setup, congestion control, TLS 1.3 encryption
  • Browser-native via WebTransport over HTTP/3 (baseline March 2026: Chrome, Firefox, Safari 26.4+)
  •  One solution for contribution, distribution, live, interactive, conferencing and XR streaming

Architecture

MoQ Architecture
© Fraunhofer FOKUS

Data model

  • Track: a named media stream (e.g. “video-hd”), identified by namespace + name
  • Group: independently decodable unit (e.g. a GoP); switching point, droppable under congestion
  • Subgroup: objects within a group sharing one QUIC stream, priority and dependency
  • Object: smallest delivery unit (e.g. a single frame), with publisher priority and delivery order
  • A reserved catalog track describes all available tracks, the MoQ equivalent of a DASH MPD or HLS playlist

Streaming Formats

  • CMSF (draft-01) – CMAF/fMP4 segments, played via MSE, DRM-capable via EME; latency ~0.5–1 s; best for broad compatibility
  • MSF (draft-01) – LOC raw frames + catalog, decoded via WebCodecs; latency below 150 ms; best for real-time communication and contribution

FAMIUM MoQ – the Fraunhofer FOKUS implementation

FAMIUM MoQ is a complete MoQ Transport pipeline in Go and TypeScript from media ingest via relay to playback. The implementation is layered so that each concern can evolve independently. A new media format or a new application does not touch the transport code below it.

FAMIUM-MoQ-Architecture
The FAMIUM MoQ stack: applications, libraries and tools, media adapters, MoQ transport core, session layer and connection abstraction, with cross-cutting features.
FAMIUM-MoQ-Runtime-Pipeline
  • Applications – reference applications built on the stack: FAMIUM MoQ Player for live and on-demand playback, Conference for multi-party video communication, Voice for AI voice agents that would otherwise rely on WebRTC, Render for remote and cloud rendering, and Cam for camera contribution from mobile and wearable devices.
  • Libraries and tools – the reusable building blocks: the Go command-line tools moq-pub, moq-relay and moq-sub for server-side and headless deployments, and the TypeScript libraries moq-pub.js, moq-sub.js and moq-player.js for browser applications. The same protocol implementation backs both, with full FFmpeg integration (ffmpeg as publisher, ffplay as subscriber).
  • Media adapters – the bridge between media formats and MoQ objects. CMSF maps CMAF/fMP4 segments for MSE playback and DRM, MSF maps LOC raw frames for WebCodecs and sub-150-millisecond latency, and the MoQ catalog announces the available tracks and their parameters.
  • MoQ transport core – the protocol roles (publisher, subscriber, relay) and the data model of tracks, groups, subgroups and objects, including priorities, delivery order and drop behaviour under congestion.
  • Session layer – SETUP handshake and version negotiation, control messages such as SUBSCRIBE, ANNOUNCE and FETCH, data stream handling and session lifecycle including error and reconnection handling.
  • Connection abstraction – a single interface over native QUIC (quic-go) for server and CLI clients and WebTransport for browsers, so application code is identical in both environments.

Cross-cutting capabilities span all layers: adaptive bitrate, DRM, dynamic ad insertion, C2PA provenance for content authenticity, and metrics reporting for quality of experience and quality of service. They are implemented where they belong technically: ABR and DRM in the client, provenance end-to-end, metrics collected from publishers, relays and subscribers alike. Adaptive bitrate, ad insertion and metrics reporting are currently in development.

What we offer

Fraunhofer FOKUS offers FAMIUM MoQ as a complete package or as individual components.

  • Licensing: commercial licences for the full FAMIUM MoQ stack or for single components like publisher, relay, subscriber, browser libraries, MSE and WebCodecs players, media adapters.
  • Research and development projects: joint R&D with industry partners, from feasibility studies and prototypes to production-ready components, including publicly funded projects.
  • Consulting: architecture and migration advice on MoQ adoption, protocol and format selection (CMSF or MSF), CDN and relay deployment, and standardization strategy in IETF and 3GPP.
  • Demonstrators and evaluation: tailored demonstrators, interop testing against the FAMIUM relay, and measurement of latency, scalability and quality of experience in the customer's own environment.

Demonstrated in Practice

  • Berlin → Las Vegas live streaming: camera to browser below one second, with FFmpeg contribution, CMAF packaging and MSE playback
  • Browser-to-browser communication: below 100 ms glass-to-glass with WebCodecs and Canvas/AudioContext; the MoQ relay acts as the SFU; demonstrated Chrome desktop → Safari on Apple Vision Pro
  • Wearable streaming: live streaming directly from Ray-Ban Meta glasses via iPhone app, FFmpeg and the FAMIUM MoQ pipeline

MoQ compared

Feature MoQ (MoQT) HLS / DASH WebRTC RTMP / SRT
Latency <150 ms – 1 s 3 – 30 s <200 ms 0.5 – 3 s
Scale Millions (CDN) Millions (CDN) ~100s (SFU) Ingest only
Web native Yes (QUIC/WT) Yes (HTTP) Yes No
Use case Contribution + distribution Distribution Communication Contribution
Standard IETF (active) IETF / ISO W3C / IETF De facto

Ecosystem and Standardization

  • NAB 2026 interop: 11+ implementations demonstrated (Fraunhofer FOKUS, Akamai, Cloudflare, Ateme, Red5, Synamedia, AWS and more)
  •  MoQ CDN test deployments at Akamai, Cloudflare and CDN77
  •  OpenMOQ consortium (founded September 2025) – industry alliance for MoQ adoption and interop
  •  3GPP study items FS_QStream_MED and FS_Q4RTC_MED – QUIC-based media in 5G/6G networks
  •  First production deployments since 2025

FAMIUM MoQ at a Glance

  • Protocol: MoQT draft-ietf-moq-transport-18
  • Formats: CMSF (CMAF → MSE), MSF (LOC → WebCodecs)
  • Latency: <150 ms (MSF), 0.5–1 s (CMSF)
  • Data model: Track, Group, Subgroup, Object
  • Stack: Go + TypeScript, FFmpeg integration
  • Transport: QUIC + WebTransport