Re: HTTP: T-T-T-Talking about MIME Generation

According to Dave Raggett:
> 
> > Correct me if I am wrong, but I concluded from Spero's postings that
> > nothing currently proposed including MGET, hold-open, or even HTTP-NG
> > would improve (or even match?) the user's perceived performance
> > currently given by Netscape.  By this I mean the ellapsed time until
> > the user can start reading *all the text* and the ellapsed time until
> > the user can jump to a new link.
> 
> HTTPng will win over the multiple connections used by Netscape, as the
> latter lead to congestion problems, since the connections don't share
> congestion info. In addition, using a single connection gets around the
> slow start problem leading to better peformance. It will also be much
> nicer to servers!
> 

Perhaps.  But by now we have all had extensive experience with Netscape
and while there have been numerous theoretical objections to multiple
connections I don't think servers have collapsed under the load.  I suspect
that most providers will simply see the increased load (and I don't think
we really know how much it is increased) as the price of supplying a
better product (from the consumer's point of view).

As for the TCP slow start problem, I don't understand why a single
slow start ala HTTP-NG is better for the UPP (user's perceived
performance) than multiple slow starts in parallel ala Netscape.

Even if HTTPng will win over multiple connections, I think it will have
to be a dramatic win before client vendors will completely switch.

> Simon explained all this in his notes.
> 

Could you give a reference?  Thanks.


John Franks

Received on Friday, 16 December 1994 09:54:25 UTC