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Applications: World Wide Web (HTTP) : Internetworking With TCP/IP Vol 1 - Part 27 2005

The document discusses the World Wide Web and HTTP. It describes the web as a distributed hypermedia system that uses HTML for representation and HTTP for transfer. HTTP is a request-response protocol that runs over TCP. It allows negotiation between browsers and servers for document encoding and representation through the use of headers sent with each request and response. Caching of web pages is also described as essential for efficiency.

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Nacho Alvarez
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
31 views

Applications: World Wide Web (HTTP) : Internetworking With TCP/IP Vol 1 - Part 27 2005

The document discusses the World Wide Web and HTTP. It describes the web as a distributed hypermedia system that uses HTML for representation and HTTP for transfer. HTTP is a request-response protocol that runs over TCP. It allows negotiation between browsers and servers for document encoding and representation through the use of headers sent with each request and response. Caching of web pages is also described as essential for efficiency.

Uploaded by

Nacho Alvarez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 22

PART XXVII

APPLICATIONS:
WORLD WIDE WEB
(HTTP)

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 1 2005


World Wide Web

Distributed hypermedia paradigm


Major service on the Internet
Use surpassed file transfer in 1995

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 2 2005


Web Page Identifier

Known as Uniform Resource Locator (URL)


Encodes
– Access protocol to use
– Domain name of server
– Protocol port number (optional)
– Path through server’s file system (optional)
– Parameters (optional)
– Query (optional)
Format
http: // hostname [: port] / path [; parameters] [? query]

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 3 2005


Web Standards

Separate standards for


– Representation
– Transfer

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 4 2005


Representation

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)


Document contains text plus embedded links
HTML gives guidelines for display, not details
Consequence: two browsers may choose to display same
document differently

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 5 2005


Transfer

Used between browser and web server


Protocol is HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Runs over TCP

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 6 2005


HTTP Characteristics

Application level
Request / response paradigm
Stateless
Permits bi-directional transfer
Offers capability negotiation
Support for caching
Support for intermediaries

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 7 2005


HTTP Operation

Browser sends requests to which server replies


Typical request: GET used to fetch document
Example

GET http://www.cs.purdue.edu/people/comer/ HTTP/1.1

Relative URL also permitted

GET /people/comer/ HTTP/1.1

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 8 2005


Error Messages

HTTP includes set of error responses


Server can format error as HTML message for user or use
internal form and allow browser to format message

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 9 2005


Persistent Connections

HTTP version 1.0 uses one TCP connection per transfer


– Browser forms TCP connection to server
– Browser sends GET request
– Server returns header describing item
– Server returns item
– Server closes connection
HTTP version 1.1 permits connection to persist across
multiple requests

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 10 2005


HTTP Headers

HTTP uses MIME-like headers to carry meta information. Both


browsers and servers send headers that allow them to negotiate
agreement on the document representation and encoding to be
used.

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 11 2005


Handing Persistence

To allow a TCP connection to persist through multiple requests


and responses, HTTP sends a length before each response. If it
does not know the length, a server informs the client, sends the
response, and then closes the connection.

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 12 2005


Headers And Length Encoding

HTTP headers use same syntax as email headers


– Lines of text followed by blank line
– Lines of text have form keyword:information
For persistent connection header specifies length (in octets)
of data item that follows

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 13 2005


Items That Can Appear In An HTTP Header

Header Meaning
Content-Length Size of item in octets
Content-Type Type of item
Content-Encoding Encoding used for item
Content-Language Language(s) used in item

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 14 2005


Example Of Header

Content-Length: 34
Content-Language: english
Content-Encoding: ascii

<HTML> A trivial example. </HTML>

Note: if length is not known in advance, server can inform


browser that connection will close following transfer

Connection: close

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 15 2005


Negotiation

Either server or browser can initiate


Items sent in headers
Can specify representations that are acceptable with
preference value assigned to each
Example

Accept: text/html, text/plain; q=0.5, text/x-dvi; q=0.8

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 16 2005


Items For Negotiation

Accept-Encoding:
Accept-Charset:
Accept-Language:

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 17 2005


Conditional Request

Allows browser to check cached copy for freshness


Eliminates useless latency
Sends If-Modified-Since in header of GET request
Example

If-Modified-Since: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 05:00:01 GMT

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 18 2005


Proxy Servers

Browser can be configured to contact proxy


Permits caching for entire organization
Server can specify maximum number of proxies along path
(including none)

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 19 2005


Caching Of Web Pages

Caching essential to efficiency


Server specifies
– Whether page can be cached
– Maximum time page can be kept
Intermediate caches and browser cache web pages
Browser can specify maximum age of page (forces
intermediate caches to revalidate)

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 20 2005


Summary

Web is major application in the Internet


Standard for representation is HTML
Standard for transfer is HTTP
– Request-response protocol
– Header precedes item
– Version 1.1 permits persistent connections
– Server specifies length of time item can be cached
– Browser can issue conditional request to validate cached
item

Internetworking With TCP/IP vol 1 -- Part 27 21 2005


Questions?

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