{"author":{"id":0,"name":"","url":"https://llmpages.org/author/"},"canonical_url":"https://llmpages.org/research/tct-alpha3-cloudflare-experiment/","categories":null,"content":"TCT Alpha.3 Cloudflare Experiment\n\nA bounded deployment experiment testing whether publisher-controlled TCT machine representations can retain exact representation identity when delivered with origin-generated gzip through Cloudflare.\n\n\nStatus: Project-internal implementation evidence collected on 15 August 2026. This is not evidence of IETF endorsement, independent adoption, production suitability, or general performance.\n\n\n\nResearch questions\n\nCan one generic origin publish a human-facing resource and a smaller machine-facing representation containing the same substantive article content?\nCan identity and gzip representations retain exact, coding-specific strong validators and digest metadata across the Cloudflare edge?\nDoes origin-generated gzip remove the transfer-size disadvantage previously observed when the machine representation was delivered only as identity bytes?\n\n\nTested architecture\n\nOrigin: the publisher-controlled PHP application generates deterministic identity or gzip bytes with a strong ETag and Content-Digest.\nAdapter: the Cloudflare Draft-03 Alpha.3 Worker negotiates, verifies, and preserves the selected representation.\nClient: the TCT client receives the exact origin-generated representation and its validator metadata.\n\nThe origin owns byte generation and validators. The Worker negotiates the supported coding, checks the required metadata, and preserves the selected response; it does not generate or recompress successful TCT content.\n\n\nObserved result\n\nHuman-facing C-URL: 12,089 identity bytes; 4,678-byte median gzip body.\nMachine-facing M-URL: 10,907 identity bytes; 4,176-byte deterministic gzip body.\n\nIdentity reduction for this fixture: 9.777%.\nGzip-capable reduction for this fixture: 10.731%.\nDirect coded-origin verification: 37/37 checks passed.\nCloudflare edge/origin verification: 63/63 checks passed.\nIdentity and gzip representations had different body-derived strong ETags and Content-Digest values.\nBoth codings exposed the same experimental Unencoded-Digest for the common unencoded representation.\nThe catalog validator hint remained scoped to the identity M-URL ETag.\n\n\nWhat this demonstrates\n\nTCT's purpose is not limited to byte savings: it provides an explicit, publisher-controlled machine representation with deterministic discovery and ordinary HTTP freshness semantics.\nCompression and byte-correct strong validators can coexist when the byte-producing origin owns both.\nThe Cloudflare adapter can remain origin-neutral and preserve exact coded bytes for the tested PHP/LiteSpeed deployment.\nThe earlier negative coded-size result was an implementation limitation of identity-only delivery, not an inherent result of TCT.\n\n\nWhat this does not demonstrate\n\nFewer client-to-edge requests, fewer origin requests, or reduced origin processing time.\nProduction capacity, availability, or security suitability.\nCompatibility with Brotli, every CDN, every origin framework, or arbitrary transformation.\nIndependent implementation, independent adoption, or a need to revise TCT Draft-03.\n\n\nInspect the exact surfaces\n\nHuman-facing C-URL\nMachine-facing M-URL\nTCT catalog\nRetained Alpha.3 canary source\nAlpha.3 representation contract\nTCT Draft-03 on the IETF Datatracker\n\n\nBack to implementations","content_media_type":"text/plain; charset=utf-8","excerpt":"A bounded deployment experiment testing whether publisher-controlled TCT machine representations can retain exact representation identity when delivered with origin-generated gzip through Cloudflare. Status: Project-internal implementation evidence collected on 15 August 2026. This is not evidence of IETF endorsement, independent adoption, production suitability, or general performance. Research questions Can one generic origin publish a human-facing resource","headings":[{"anchor":null,"level":2,"text":"Research questions"},{"anchor":null,"level":2,"text":"Tested architecture"},{"anchor":null,"level":2,"text":"Observed result"},{"anchor":null,"level":2,"text":"What this demonstrates"},{"anchor":null,"level":2,"text":"What this does not demonstrate"},{"anchor":null,"level":2,"text":"Inspect the exact surfaces"}],"image":null,"images":null,"lastModified":"2026-08-15T22:26:41+00:00","llm_url":"https://llmpages.org/research/tct-alpha3-cloudflare-experiment/llm/","post_id":963,"post_type":"page","profile":"https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-jurkovikj-collab-tunnel-03.html#tct-m-url-profile","published":"2026-08-15T22:20:25+00:00","slug":"tct-alpha3-cloudflare-experiment","tags":null,"title":"TCT Alpha.3 Cloudflare Experiment","word_count":398}