Chapter 10. HTTP-NG

Chapter 10. HTTP-NG

As this book nears completion, HTTP is celebrating its tenth birthday. And it has been quite an accomplished decade for this Internet protocol. Today, HTTP moves the absolute majority of digital traffic around the world.

But, as HTTP grows into its teenage years it faces a few challenges. In some ways, the pace of HTTP adoption has gotten ahead of its design. Today, people are using HTTP as a foundation for many diverse applications, over many different networking technologies.

This chapter outlines some of the trends and challenges for the future of HTTP, and a proposal for a next-generation architecture called HTTP-NG. While the working group for HTTP-NG has disbanded and its rapid adoption now appears unlikely, it nonetheless outlines some potential future directions of HTTP.