Re: [Gen-art] Gen-art last call review of draft-ietf-httpbis-http2-16

[Eliot Lear <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

On 1/20/15 8:17 AM, Martin Thomson wrote:
> On 19 January 2015 at 02:37, Elwyn Davies <[e-mail]> wrote:
>> Summary:
>> Almost ready.  A well written document with just a few nits really.  I am
>> slightly surprised (having not been following httpbis in detail) that HTTP/2
>> is so tightly wedded to TCP - this is doubtless pragmatic but it adds to the
>> ossification of the Internet and makes me slightly suspicious that it is an
>> attempt to really confirm HTTP/2 as the waist of the neo-Internet.  Can't we
>> ever use any other transport?
> I think that - overall - the desire for the timely replacement of
> HTTP/1.1 was stronger than the desire to attain perfection.
>
> And rather than ossifying, the general view is that ALPN clears a path
> to more changes in the future.
>
> If you want to talk about the waist of the neo-Internet, I think
> identifying HTTP more generally is appropriate; we're only really
> upgrading a small part of it.  And there are ongoing plans to continue
> to upgrade the entire protocol.  But our relevance is only defined by
> what we ship, and this is a significant improvement that isn't worth
> holding back for years while we ponder more fundamental changes.

THIS version of HTTP is very much focused on multiple streams of
communication.  There is the equivalent of source quench,
prioritization, and windowing; and indeed the intent is to reduce the
number of parallel TCP connections.  This having been said, I don't see
this point as against HTTP2, but a reflection of the difficulty in
making substantial changes to the transport layer.  The IAB have had one
workshop that touched on this point (ITAT)[1] in which Elwyn
participated, and next week we will hold another (SEMI)[2].

Eliot
[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7305
[2] https://www.iab.org/activities/workshops/semi/