Hi readers!
HTTP
HTTP/1 and HTTP/2 are two versions of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which is the foundation of data communication on the World Wide Web. They define how messages are formatted and transmitted, and how web servers and browsers should respond to various commands.
HTTP/1.0:
Year of Introduction: 1996
Key Features:
Simple and straightforward protocol.
Each request from the client is answered by a single response from the server, and the connection is closed after each request/response.
The lack of request pipelining often led to a phenomenon known as the "head-of-line blocking," where a slow-loading resource could block the loading of subsequent resources in parallel.
HTTP/1.1:
Year of Introduction: 1997
Key Features:
Introduced persistent connections, allowing multiple requests and responses to be sent over a single connection, reducing latency.
Request pipelining, which allows multiple requests to be sent without waiting for each response, improving performance.
Host header to support multiple domains on the same IP address.
Chunked transfer encoding for efficient transmission of large data.
HTTP/2:
Year of Introduction: 2015
Key Features:
Binary protocol: Unlike the text-based nature of HTTP/1.x, HTTP/2 is a binary protocol, which makes it more efficient to parse and less error-prone.
Multiplexing: Allows multiple requests and responses to be sent in parallel over a single connection, addressing the head-of-line blocking issue.
Header Compression: Reduces overhead by compressing header information.
Server Push: Allows the server to push resources to the client before they are explicitly requested, improving performance.
Prioritization: Requests can be assigned priority levels, allowing more important resources to be delivered first.
HTTP/2 was designed to address the limitations of HTTP/1.x and improve the overall performance and efficiency of web communication. It has become widely adopted, and many modern websites use HTTP/2 to provide a faster and more responsive user experience.
Hope you find this helpful. Thanks for reading.
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