Re: HPACK encoder/decoder memory bounding

It seems tricky to me for an endpoint to use less than
SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE for its encoding state, especially since it
still has to use SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE for its decoding state.

Since we already need an ack for a header table size change, can we perhaps
piggyback a negotiated size (guaranteed to be <= the advertised size) onto
that ack? So a client can just send SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE=5MB, and a
memory-constraint server can ack with SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE=4K, and
both sides will then use 4K.


On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 9:38 AM, Hervé Ruellan <ruellan.crf@gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Osama,
>
> We discussed on this topic in the thread starting at:
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/2013OctDec/0221.html.
>
> Basically, an encoder can choose to keep only the first 4 KB of its table,
> discarding the rest. It will just not make any reference to the entries in
> the table above the first 4 KB.
> It the encoder wants also to reference the static table, this is more
> complex (see the referred to thread for more details). It will work if the
> maximum table size is 8 KB, and the encoder keeps only 4 KB of it, it will
> not really work if the encoder wants to only keep 4 KB of a 5MB table.
>
> Hervé.
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 4:09 AM, Osama Mazahir <OSAMAM@microsoft.com>wrote:
>
>>  Based on my understanding, the encoder and decoder have to have the
>> exact same value for max-header-table-size so that the indices match.  So
>> if the client advertises SETTINGS_HEADER_TABLE_SIZE=5MB then that means the
>> client-decoder is using a header-table with maxsize=5MB.  Which means the
>> server-encoder also has to use a header-table of maxsize=5MB.  But if the
>> server only wants to use 4KB of encoder space then after storing 4KB worth
>> of header name/values, it can only reuse from the initially stored 4KB or
>> emit literals (either as-is or Huffman encoded).****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> So it seems to bound its memory usage, the server (in the above example)
>> has to be choosy in what it adds to the server-encoder header-table because
>> once something is added it cannot be removed (unless it decides to expand
>> to 5MB+)?****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Thanks,****
>>
>> --Osama.****
>>
>
>