Multiplexing: TCP vs HTTP2 | @DevOpsSummit #APM #DevOps #BigData

One of the big performance benefits of moving to HTTP/2 comes from its extensive use of multiplexing. For the uninitiated, multiplexing is the practice of reusing a single TCP connection for multiple HTTP requests and responses. See, in the old days (HTTP/1), a request/response pair required its own special TCP connection. That ultimately resulted in the TCP connection per host limits imposed on browsers and, because web sites today are comprised of an average of 86 or more individual objects each needing its own request/response, slowed down transfers. HTTP/1.1 let us use “persistent” HTTP connections, which was the emergence of multiplexing (connections could be reused) but constrained by the synchronous (in order) requirement of HTTP itself. So you’d open 6 or 7 or 8 connections and then reuse them to get those 80+ objects.

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