MOD_SPDY and HTTP/2
In 2009, Google announced it would start to find ways to update the HTTP protocol by making use of a new session protocol named SPDY (SPeeDY
). This new session protocol worked over an underlying TLS presentation layer and allowed for many HTTP speed optimizations at the application layer. Using SPDY was as easy as activating SSL, installing the mod_spdy
module on your web server and activating it. No modifications to the websites were needed in order to benefit from its features.
Moreover, all major browsers were supporting it. SPDY rapidly became a core element of the Faster Web and became, in November 2012, the basis of the next major revision of the HTTP protocol. Then, in 2015, it was deprecated in favor of the new HTTP/2 protocol. The most important optimizations that were introduced by SPDY and that would find their way into the new HTTP protocol's specifications were multiplexed and prioritized streams, server pushing and header compression. Let's have a look at...