HTTP/2 officially approved - world (wide web) rejoices

First update to HTTP in 16 years will better handle multimedia communications

HTTP/2, the second major revision to the HTTP-standard network protocol, has taken the final step to becoming a standard, with the publication of RFC7540 - the first update to the communications protocol behind the worldwide web since 1999. The upgraded standard is intended to improve web performance, and to better handle the various technologies now transmitted over HTTP.

"HTTP/2 enables a more efficient use of network resources and a reduced perception of latency by introducing header field compression and allowing multiple concurrent exchanges on the same connection. It also introduces unsolicited push of representations from servers to clients," explains the RFC.

Since 1999, HTTP has had to handle elements such as cascading style sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and Adobe Flash animations that it was never designed for. Transferring those different elements, which will be embedded on just one web page, requires multiple connections containing details about the source, destination and contents of the communication, placing a burden on both client and server.

HTTP/2 is intended to handle all those various elements more efficiently. HTTP/2 leaves most of HTTP 1.1's high level syntax, such as methods, status codes, and header fields in place. The element that is modified is how the data is framed and transported between the client and the server, according to Ilya Grigorik, writing in High Performance Browser Networking.

"The primary goals for HTTP/2 are to reduce latency by enabling full request and response multiplexing, minimize protocol overhead via efficient compression of HTTP header fields, and add support for request prioritization and server push," Grigorik writes.

"To implement these requirements, there is a large supporting cast of other protocol enhancements, such as new flow control, error handling, and upgrade mechanisms, but these are the most important features that every web developer should understand and leverage in their applications," he adds.

The way was paved for the adoption of HTTP/2 when an alternative proposal from Google, which it dubbed SPDY, was absorbed into the HTTP/2 effort.