What is HTTPS?
So far, our frontend and backend applications have been running through HTTP. However, this is not secure and has some drawbacks. To secure the traffic between our browser and our NGINX server, we are going to have to ensure that our application is using the HTTP/2 protocol. The HTTP/2 protocol has the following differences from the standard HTTP/1 protocol:
- Binary protocol
- Compressed headers
- Persistent connections
- Multiplex streaming
We can go through the preceding laid-out points and discuss the differences.
Binary protocol
HTTP uses a text-based protocol whereas HTTP/2 uses a binary protocol. A binary protocol uses bytes to transmit data as opposed to human-readable characters, which are encoded using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). Using bytes reduces the number of possible errors and the size needed to transfer data. It will also enable us to encrypt our data stream, which is the basis of HTTPS.
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