Suggestion for simplified HTTP 2.0 header compression algorithm

Hello,

The proposed header compression algorithm is rather complicated and we foresee that  there will be at least initially a lot of interworking problems
when different compressor and de-compressor implementations need to work together.
We experienced those problems when the equally complicated WAP1.x header compression was implemented.

Here is our proposal for simplifying how headers are compressed in HTTP/2.0.
It does not compress as hard as the currently proposed solution (if the encoder is written in a very smart way),
but it is much easier to implement.

Please have a look at it and comment.

Exchange of static headers, which are the same for one TCP connection:

The SETTINGS frame is used to transmit the static request and response headers.
The HEADERS frame is used to transmit the dynamic request and response headers.
Static headers and dynamic headers are combined in the following way:

1.       Emit the dynamic headers.

2.       Emit the static headers whose header names are not present in the dynamic headers.

                         Client                        Server
                           |                             |
                           |SETTINGS                     |
                           | - static request headers    |
                           |   (:method, :host,          |
                           |    User-Agent, Accept, ...)   |
                           |---------------------------->| Store static request
                           |                             | headers for connection
                           |SETTINGS                     |
                           | - static response headers   |
                           |   (:status 200, Server, ...)  |
                           |                             |
     Store static response |<----------------------------|
    headers for connection |                             |
                           |HEADERS                      |
                           | - dynamic request headers   |
                           |   (:path, ...)                |
                           |---------------------------->| Combine static and
                           |                             | dynamic request
                           |                             | headers.
                           |                             | Dynamic headers have
                           |                             | precedence over static
                           |                             | headers.
                           |HEADERS                      |
                           | - dynamic response headers  |
                           |   (Content-Type, Age, ...)    |
        Combine static and |<----------------------------|
 dynamic response headers. |                             |
      Dynamic headers have |                             |
    precedence over static |                             |
                  headers. |                             |

Coding of header names and values:

Standard headers are coded in the following way:
  0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| 1 | Index of standard header  |
+---+---------------------------+
|  Value length (8+)            |
+-------------------------------+
| Value String (Length octets)  |
+-------------------------------+


Non-standard headers are coded in the following way:
  0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| 0 | Name Length (7+)          |
+---+---------------------------+
| Name String (Length octets)   |
+-------------------------------+
| Value length (8+)             |
+-------------------------------+
| Value String (Length octets)  |
+-------------------------------+

Indices for standard headers (example only):

0 :scheme
1 :host
2 :path
3 :method
4 :status
5 accept
6 accept-charset
7 accept-encoding
8 accept-language
9 age
10 cache-control
11 content-length
...

Br,

Hans Spaak
Ericsson AB
E-mail: hans.spaak@ericsson.com<mailto:hans.spaak@ericsson.com>
Web: www.ericsson.com<http://www.ericsson.com>