HTTP 'Next Generation'

Abstract We report on the results of the Protocol Design Group of the W3C's HTTP `Next Generation' Activity. The group produced and measured a prototype that shows that it is possible, largely using familiar engineering principles, to make simultaneous improvements in the following problem areas of HTTP/1.1: (1) the layering of other application protocols over HTTP; (2) modularity and extensibility; (3) networking performance and fairness; (4) the rigid binding between identifiers and protocol stacks; and (5) the opacity of layered traffic to firewalls. The prototype also suggests that these can be done in a way that may lead to unifying the Web with related middleware systems such as COM, CORBA, and Java RMI.