Coalescing #490

• From: Martin Thomson <martin.thomson@gmail.com>
• Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 17:04:14 -0700
• To: HTTP Working Group <ietf-http-wg@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <CABkgnnWCv2kjjcE334yfwJCzwPWdRDXS=8ubvSXDriYOxvS+kw@mail.gmail.com>

In the issue we have for dealing with renegotiation (#363) there have
been a couple of related items that have come up.  One of these is
connection coalescing.

I've raised #490, which tracks whether we want this feature.  I'm sure
that we can come up with reasons both for and against the feature.

Here's what I have been able to come up with briefly:

Pros
* it's much faster to reuse a connection
* SPDY deployments have been successfully doing this for a while
* it's nicer on the network to have fewer connections
* it allows for cross-origin push (with caveats)

Cons
* it's harder to reason about from a security perspective
* it messes with client authentication
* RFC 6066 says we shouldn't
* it provides another advantage to large players

Feel free to stack your arguments on either side in case I've missed anything.

Received on Tuesday, 3 June 2014 00:04:44 UTC