http/2

We probably all knew http/2.0 was in the making ( IETF have removed the minor version to avoid confusion, so you can just  call it http/2 or h2 )

Recently,     I had an interesting read on how the  industry is adopting http/2 ,   and below is just a loosely unorganized  excerpt with some useful links:

The current web fact is :     unlike late 90’s ,  every initial  landing page today on an avg. has 2 MB+  statics ( after compressed L)  , 125+ objects , ~52 RCP connections , and ~28 domains  embedded  – the need why the existing protocols are relooked.

Majorly  (i) multiple round trips , and (ii) nervous/jittery  congestion control design ,   from  the previous version i.e. http/1.1 was looked into,    and was the anchor point in this whole research.

·         Last year IETF passed the draft of http/2.

·         HTTP/2 was based largely on Google’s own protocol SPDY ( which will be deprecated  from May 2016 to give lead to http/2)

·         Currently 76%+  existing browsers supports http2 ( includes Mozilla, Chrome , IE etc. )

Main features for http/2:

-          Single Connection ( unlike http1.1) / avoid multiple round trip.

-          Multiplexing!

-          Server Push! ( proactively additional content can be sent to client for latter’s later use.

-          Binary and not text.

-          Header Compression ( uses HPACK compression)

See a demo:

·         http://www.http2demo.io

·         https://http2.akamai.com/demo

Does my site supports http2:    

You can actually check it here  :  https://tools.keycdn.com/http2-test  

Can we ?  :

Well, yes -  but do we really need it? Also,   It calls for  work on the existing infra. 

Apache 2.4.17+ onwards ships with mod_http2.

Some cool reads :

Patrick Stox here  , and  also, 'Stephen Ludin' from Akamai explains it more here on emerging web performance technologies.  

Who in the world has already adopted it ( see it here).

Thx/- Deba