HTTP/2 Protocol: Advantages and Disadvantages

This article explores the pros and cons of the HTTP/2 protocol and provides a basic overview of its features. It details the benefits and drawbacks of HTTP/2, offering insights into its capabilities and limitations.

What is HTTP/2?

Introduction:

HTTP/2 serves as a data transmission protocol for the web, similar to its predecessor, HTTP. It’s a web transfer protocol facilitating communication between web servers and clients (web users). As the successor to HTTP/1.1, it incorporates various new features aimed at enhancing performance and efficiency. Unlike the text-based HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 is a binary protocol, but it remains compatible with HTTP/1.1 standards in terms of methods, URIs, status codes, and header fields.

It maintains server-side backward compatibility, ensuring that HTTP/1.1 clients can be served without requiring modifications. A key difference is that HTTP/2 utilizes a single TCP connection, unlike HTTP/1.1. Within this connection, streams are multiplexed and prioritized.

Some of the core features are described below:

• Multiplexing: Enables the simultaneous transmission of multiple requests and responses over a single connection.
• Header Compression: Reduces header size through compression, particularly for headers that have been previously requested.
• Server Push: Allows the server to proactively send resources to clients before they’re explicitly requested.
• Binary Format: Uses a binary data format for communication between clients and web servers, a departure from the text-based format of HTTP 1.0/HTTP 1.1.
• Prioritization: Enables clients and servers to set priorities for requests and responses.
• Encryption: Supports encrypted connections using the HTTPS protocol.
• Flow Control: Ensures that clients and servers don’t send data beyond the capacity of their respective peers.

Benefits or Advantages of HTTP/2

The following are the benefits and advantages of using HTTP/2:

• Reduced Latency: Multiplexing reduces the number of connections needed, decreasing the overhead associated with opening and closing connections.
• Faster Web Page Loads: Due to the single connection and the reduction in round trips and handshakes, web pages load more quickly.
• Efficient Header Compression: HPACK header compression reduces the amount of data transferred over the network, enhancing connection efficiency.
• Improved Performance with Server Push: By reducing the number of round trips needed to load a web page, server push improves performance and reduces loading time.
• Efficient Communication: The binary format offers more efficient communication compared to text-based formats.
• Enhanced User Experience: Prioritization allows clients and servers to load important resources first, improving the user experience.
• Enhanced Security: HTTP/2 utilizes the HTTPS encryption protocol, preventing eavesdropping and data tampering.

Drawbacks or Disadvantages of HTTP/2

The following are the limitations and disadvantages of using HTTP/2:

• Caching Challenges: Caching resources at the client side can be challenging, as the client lacks control over resources pushed by the server.
• Limited Backward Compatibility: While an improvement over HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 is not fully backward compatible, potentially causing interoperability issues with some existing systems.
• Limited Support: HTTP/2 is still evolving and may not be supported by all browsers and web servers.
• Head-of-Line Blocking: The single connection used for multiple requests can lead to head-of-line blocking, where a slow request can delay the processing of other requests.
• Mutual Support Requirement: Both client and server must support HTTP/2 for data communication, which might not be the case in all environments.
• HTTPS Requirement: HTTP/2 typically requires HTTPS for encryption, which may not be supported by legacy systems and devices.

Also, refer to the advantages and disadvantages of HTTP protocol, differences between HTTP 1 vs HTTP 1.1 vs HTTP 2, and differences between HTTP vs HTTPS for further information.