datagrams: Add initial datagram draft

Author: MarcoPolo

datagrams/datagrams.md

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# Datagrams in libp2p
+
+| Lifecycle Stage | Maturity      | Status | Latest Revision |
+| --------------- | ------------- | ------ | --------------- |
+| 1A              | Working Draft | Active | r0, 2025-05-23  |
+
+Authors: [@marcopolo]
+
+Interest Group: [@sukunrt], [@jxs], [@raulk]
+
+[@marcopolo]: https://github.com/marcopolo
+[@sukunrt]: https://github.com/sukunrt
+[@jxs]: https://github.com/jxs
+[@raulk]: https://github.com/raulk
+
+See the [lifecycle document][lifecycle-spec] for context about the maturity level
+and spec status.
+
+[lifecycle-spec]: https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/00-framework-01-spec-lifecycle.md
+
+## Table of Contents
+
+- [Introduction](#introduction)
+- [Native support at the transport level](#native-support-at-the-transport-level)
+- [Encoding Datagrams](#encoding-datagrams)
+- [Datagrams on top of a multiplexed stream on top of TCP](#datagrams-on-top-of-a-multiplexed-stream-on-top-of-tcp)
+- [Datagrams with WebRTC](#datagrams-with-webrtc)
+
+## Introduction
+
+This specification defines the datagrams on libp2p, which enable the
+transmission of MTU-sized, unreliable, and low latency messages between peers.
+
+TODO write more about the tradeoffs here as well as the kinds of applications that would benefit from using datagrams.
+
+## Native support at the transport level
+
+Some libp2p transports natively support datagrams, such as QUIC and WebTransport. libp2p implementations MUST use the native datagram support to send datagrams.
+
+QUIC has an Unreliable Datagram Extension [RFC 9221]
+WebTransport supports Datagrams though HTTP Datagrams [WebTransport draft RFC](https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-webtrans-http3-12.html#name-datagrams)
+
+## Encoding Datagrams
+
+The libp2p datagram encoding introduces minimal framing overhead to application payloads. Each datagram MUST be encoded with the following structure to ensure proper protocol identification and version compatibility.
+
+The datagram frame consists of the following components:
+
+| Field Name         | Data Type        | Length (bits) | Description                                          |
+| ------------------ | ---------------- | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
+| version            | unsigned integer | 8             | Protocol version identifier                          |
+| protocol id length | [uvarint]        | 8..72         | Length of the protocol identifier field              |
+| protocol id        | byte sequence    | variable      | Protocol identifier as defined by protocol id length |
+| application data   | byte sequence    | variable      | Application payload                                  |
+
+The complete datagram frame is constructed as follows:
+
+```
+version || protocol id length || protocol id || application data
+```
+
+Where "||" denotes byte concatenation.
+
+The version field provides extensibility for future encoding modifications while maintaining backward compatibility. Implementations MUST verify the version field before processing the remainder of the datagram.
+
+## Datagrams on top of a multiplexed stream on top of TCP
+
+This is currently not specified.
+
+## Datagrams with WebRTC
+
+This is currently not specified.
+
+[uvarint]: https://github.com/multiformats/unsigned-varint
+[RFC 9221]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9221