6. Design Considerations

Using a SETTINGS parameter to opt into an otherwise incompatible protocol change is a use of "Extending HTTP/2" defined by Section 5.5 of [RFC7540]. Specifically, the addition a new pseudo-header field, ":protocol", and the change in meaning of the :authority pseudo-header field in Section 4 require opt-in negotiation. If a client were to use the provisions of the extended CONNECT method defined in this document without first receiving a SETTINGS_ENABLE_CONNECT_PROTOCOL parameter, a non-supporting peer would detect a malformed request and generate a stream error (Section 8.1.2.6 of [RFC7540]).