Advantages of HTTP/2 protocol | Disadvantages of HTTP/2 protocol
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of HTTP2 protocol and its basics. It mentions benefits or advantages of HTTP/2 and drawbacks or disadvantages of HTTP/2.
What is HTTP/2 ?
Introduction:
HTTP/2 is used for data transmission over web like HTTP protocol. It is web transfer protocol used between web server and clients (called as web users).
It is successor to HTTP/1.1 protocol. Various new features have been added in this protocol to deliver performance and efficiency improvement.
It is binary protocol unlike text based HTTP/1.1 protocol. It is compatible with HTTP/1.1 standard in terms of methods, URIs, status codes and header fields. It is server side backward compatible which make sures that HTTP/1.1 clients can be served without any changes. Unlike HTTP/1.1, HTTP2 uses one TCP connection. Here streams are multiplexed and they are prioritized.
Some of these features are described below.
Multiplexing : It allows multiple requests/responses to be transmitted simultaneously over single connection.
Header compression : It reduces size of header by compression which have been requested earlier.
Server push : It allows server to push resources to clients before they have been requested.
Binary format : It uses binary data format for communication between clients and web server unlike text based data format previously used by HTTP 1.0/HTTP 1.1 versions.
Prioritization : It allows client and server to set priorities for requests and responses.
Encryption : It supports encrypted connection using HTTPS protocol.
Flow control : It ensures client and server does not send data more than their respective peer's capacities.
Benefits or advantages of HTTP/2
Following are the benefits or advantages of HTTP/2:
➨Multiplexing offers reduction in number of connections needed and also reduces overhead to open and to close connections. This further reduces latency.
➨HTTP/2 offers quick web page loads due to single connection due to reduction in amount of round trips and number of handshakes.
➨Header compression uses HPACK which reduces amount of data transfer over the network. This increases efficiency of the connection.
➨Server push offers improvement in performance by reducing number of round trips needed to load a web-page. This further reduces time to load a web page.
➨Binary format offers efficient communication compare to text based communication.
➨Prioritization helps client and server to load important resources first as per priority. This improves user experience to a greater extent.
➨HTTP/2 uses HTTPS encryption protocol which prevents eavesdropping and data tampering.
Drawbacks or disadvantages of HTTP/2
Following are the limitations or drawbacks or disadvantages of HTTP/2:
➨Caching of resources at the client side is a challenge as client does not have control over resources pushed by the server.
➨HTTP/2 protocol is improvement to existing HTTP/1.1 protocol but it is not fully backward compatible to HTTP/1.1. Hence it may not interoperate with some of the existing systems.
➨HTTP/2 protocol is at growing stage and hence it may not be supported by some of the browsers and web servers.
➨Single connection used for multiple requests in HTTP/2 can cause head of line blocking. In this condition, slow request may hold up processing for other requests.
➨HTTP/2 should be supported by both client and server for data communication between them. This may not be supported by all the servers and browsers as it is in growing stage.
➨HTTP/2 requires HTTPS for encryption which may not be supported by legacy systems and legacy devices. This may limit its use in these legacy systems/devices.
➨Also refer advantages and disadvantages of HTTP protocol >>, difference between HTTP 1 vs HTTP 1.1 vs HTTP 2 >> and difference between HTTP vs HTTPS >> for more information.