How does HTTP/1 work?
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2025 5:09 am
HTTP was originally proposed by Tim Berners-Lee and later launched in 1991. Although the Internet has evolved a lot since then, HTTP, which is the power of the Internet, has undergone very little improvement.
HTTP version 1 is limited to processing a single request at a time.
Especially an HTML file on each web page; such as index.html for the home page, contact.html for the contact page, and so on. No external CSS files, no JavaScript libraries, or phone number library anything like that. So even if previous HTTP versions were limited to processing a single request, then it didn't really matter.
But now the Internet has changed and websites have become complex. Along with the HTML file, browsers must load multiple external CSS styles, JavaScript files, tons of media resources, and images to open a single webpage.
So for sites that are still in HTTP version 1, browsers are forced to open multiple connections in parallel to process multiple requests simultaneously. However, too many parallel connections can cause congestion. Modern browsers process about 6 parallel requests.
If more than 6 requests are required to load a webpage, they are queued, and therefore users experience a long time to load the slow page.
How does HTTP/2 work?
HTTP/2 was launched in 2015, given the needs of the modern Internet. This is the first major improvement in HTTP since 1997!
HTTP version 1 is limited to processing a single request at a time.
Especially an HTML file on each web page; such as index.html for the home page, contact.html for the contact page, and so on. No external CSS files, no JavaScript libraries, or phone number library anything like that. So even if previous HTTP versions were limited to processing a single request, then it didn't really matter.
But now the Internet has changed and websites have become complex. Along with the HTML file, browsers must load multiple external CSS styles, JavaScript files, tons of media resources, and images to open a single webpage.
So for sites that are still in HTTP version 1, browsers are forced to open multiple connections in parallel to process multiple requests simultaneously. However, too many parallel connections can cause congestion. Modern browsers process about 6 parallel requests.
If more than 6 requests are required to load a webpage, they are queued, and therefore users experience a long time to load the slow page.
How does HTTP/2 work?
HTTP/2 was launched in 2015, given the needs of the modern Internet. This is the first major improvement in HTTP since 1997!