HTTP/2.0 Discussion: Stored Header Encoding
draft-snell-httpbis-bohe-07
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draft-snell-httpbis-bohe-07
Network Working Group J.M. Snell
Internet-Draft April 23, 2013
Intended status: Informational
Expires: October 25, 2013
HTTP/2.0 Discussion: Stored Header Encoding
draft-snell-httpbis-bohe-07
Abstract
This memo describes a proposed alternative encoding for headers that
combines the best concepts from the proposed Delta and HeaderDiff
options with the typed value codecs introduced by previous versions
of this draft.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
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This Internet-Draft will expire on October 25, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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Table of Contents
1. Stored Header Encoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
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2. State Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Header Serialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. Header Group Prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2. Index Header Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.3. Index Range Header Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.4. Cloned Index Header Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5. Literal Header Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. Header Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1. UTF-8 Text Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2. Numeric Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.3. Timestamp Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.4. Raw Binary Octet Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.5. Unsigned Variable Length Integer Syntax . . . . . . . . . 11
4.6. Huffman Coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.2. Informational References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Appendix A. Huffman Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Appendix B. Static Storage Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Appendix C. Updated Standard Header Definitions . . . . . . . . 23
Appendix D. State Management Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Appendix E. Alternative Timestamp encodings . . . . . . . . . . 26
Appendix F. Alternative uvarint encodings . . . . . . . . . . . 27
F.1. Option 1: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
F.2. Option 2: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Appendix G. Set-Cookie and Cookie Alternatives . . . . . . . . . 29
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1. Stored Header Encoding
The Stored Header Encoding is an alternative "binary header encoding"
for HTTP/2.0 that combines the best elements from three other
proposed encodings, including:
o The "Header Delta Compression" scheme proposed by Roberto Peon in
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-rpeon-httpbis-header-
compression-03
o The "Header Diff" encoding proposed by Herve Reullan, Jun
Fujisawa, Romain Bellessort, and Youenn Fablet in http://
tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ruellan-headerdiff-00
o The "Binary Optimized Header Encoding" proposed by James Snell
(me) in http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-snell-httpbis-bohe-03
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The Stored Header Encoding seeks to find an elegant, efficient and
simple marriage of the best concepts from each of these separate
proposals.
2. State Model
The compressor and decompressor each maintain a cache of header value
pairs. There is a static cache, prepopulated by the specification,
and a dynamic cache, populated through the compression and
decompression process. Each cache contains a maximum of 128
individual key+value pairs.
Each item in the index is referenced by an 8-bit identifier. The
most significant bit identifies whether an item from the static or
dynamic cache is being referenced. Note: the Nil byte (0x00) is a
valid identifier for the dynamic cache.
0xxxxxxx -- Dynamic Cache
1xxxxxxx -- Static Cache
The dynamic cache is managed in a "least recently written" style,
that is, as the cache fills to capacity in both number of entries and
maximum stored byte size, the least recently written items are
dropped and those index positions are reused.
Index positions from the dynamic cache are assigned in "encounter
order", beginning from 0x00 and increasing monotonically to 0x7F.
That is to say, the positions are assigned in precisely the same
order that they are serialized, and thereby encountered by the
decompressor upon reading and processing the block.
Each item in the store consists of a Header Name and a Value. The
Name is a lower-case ISO-8859-1 character sequence. The Value is
either a UTF-8 string, a number, a Timestamp or an arbitrary sequence
of binary octets.
The available size of the stored compression state can be capped by
the decompressor. Each stored value contributes to the accumulated
size of the storage state. As new key+value pairs are assigned
positions in the dynamic cache, the least-recently assigned items
must be removed if necessary to free up the required space.
The size of string values is measured by the number of UTF-8 bytes
required for the character sequence.
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The size of number and timestamp values are measured by the number of
unsigned variable length integer (uvarint) encoded bytes it takes to
represent the value (see the section of value types below).
The size of raw binary values is measured by the number of octets.
Header names DO NOT contribute to the stored state size of the
compressor; only the size of the value is considered. Duplicate
values MUST be counted individually.
3. Header Serialization
Headers are serialized into four typed header groups, each
represented by a two-bit identifier. These groups are serialized
sequentially. A serialized header block can contain, at most 256
header groups. The first byte of the serialized block is an
unsigned, 0-based counter indicating the number of groups. A
serialized block MUST contain at least one header group.
00 -- Index Header Group
01 -- Index Range Header Group
10 -- Cloned Index Header Group
11 -- Literal Header Group
The Cloned Index (10) and Literal (11) header group types have an
additional "ephemeral" property that indicates whether or not the
group affects the compression state.
Each header group contains a single 8-bit prefix and up to 32
distinct header instances.
Wire Format
header-block = OCTET *(index-header-group /
index-range-header-group /
cloned-index-header-group /
literal-header-group)
; Header Group Prefix = 8 bits ...
; First two bits = header-group-type
; Third bit = ephemeral flag
; Final five bits = instance counter
;
index-header-group-type = 00
index-range-group-type = 01
cloned-index-group-type = 10
literal-group-type = 11
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count = 5bit
index-header-prefix = index-header-group-type
unset count ; 000xxxxx
index-range-header-prefix = index-header-group-type
unset count ; 010xxxxx
cloned-index-header-prefix = cloned-index-group-type
bit count ; 10?xxxxx
literal-header-prefix = literal-group-type
bit count ; 11?xxxxx
; Cache Index Identifier = 8 bits ...
; 0xxxxxxx = Dynamic Cache Identifier
; 1xxxxxxx = Static Cache Identifier
cache-index = %x00-FF
; Index Header Group
index-header-group = index-header-prefix
1*32cache-index
; Index-Range Header Group
; Contains a pair of cache-index values, second MUST
; me strictly higher in value than the first...
index-range-header-group = index-range-header-prefix
1*32(cache-index cache-index)
; Cloned-Index Header Group
cloned-index-header-group = cloned-index-header-prefix
1*32(cache-index value)
; Literal Header Group
literal-header-group = literal-header-prefix
1*32(name value)
value = text-value /
number-value /
timestamp-value /
binary-value
text-value-type = 00 ; two bits
number-value-type = 01
timestamp-value-type = 10
binary-value-type = 11
text-value-prefix = text-value-type
unset count ; 000xxxxx
number-value-prefix = number-value-type
unset count ; 010xxxxx
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timestamp-value-prefix = timestamp-value-type
unset count ; 100xxxxx
binary-value-prefix = binary-value-type
unset count ; 110xxxxx
text-value = text-value-prefix *32string
number-value = number-value-type *32uvarint
timestamp-value = timestamp-value-prefix *32uvarint
binary-value = binary-value-prefix uvarint *OCTET
uvarint = *uvarint-continuation uvarint-final
uvarint-continuation = %x80-FF
uvarint-final = %x00-7F
name = 1*tchar
tchar = "!" / "#" / "$" / "%" / "&" /
"'" / "*" / "+" / "-" / "." /
"^" / "_" / "`" / "|" / "~"
/ DIGIT / ALPHA
string = uvarint *(HUFFMAN-ENCODED-CHAR)
HUFFMAN-EOF
padding-to-nearest-byte;
padding-to-nearest-byte = *7unset
bit = set / unset
unset = 0
set = 1
3.1. Header Group Prefix
The Header Group Prefix is a single octet that provides three
distinct pieces of information:
00 0 00000
The first two most significant bits of the header group prefix
identify the group type.
The next bit is the "ephemeral flag" and is used only for Cloned and
Literal group types. This bit indicates whether or not the group
alters the stored compression state.
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The remaining five bits specify the number of header instances in the
group, with 00000 indicating that the group contains 1 instance and
11111 contains 32. A header group MUST contain at least one
instance.
The remaining serialization of the header group depends entirely on
the group type.
3.2. Index Header Group
The serialization of the Index Header Group consists of the Header
Group Prefix and up to 32 additional octets, each referencing a
single 8-bit storage index identifier for items in either the Static
or Dynamic Cache.
For instance
00000000 00000000 = References item #0 from
the dynamic cache
00000001 00000000 10000000 = References item #0 from the
dynamic cache and item #0
from the static cache
Index Header Groups do not affect the stored compression state. If
an Index Header Group references a header index that has not yet been
allocated, the deserialization MUST terminate with an error. This
likely means that the compression state has become out of sync and
needs to be reestablished.
3.3. Index Range Header Group
The serialization of the Index Range Header Group consists of the
Header Group Prefix and up to 32 additional 2-octet (16 bits) pairs
of 8-bit storage index identifiers. Each pair specifies a sequential
range of adjacent ranges.
For instance:
01000000 00000000 00000100 = References items #0-#4 from
the dynamic cache.
(five distinct items total)
A range MAY span dynamic and static index values. Index values are
treated as unsigned byte values, so indices from the static cache are
numerically greater than dynamic cache values.. e.g.
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01000000 01111111 10000001 = References item #127 from the
dynamic cache, and items #0
and #1 from the static cache.
Index Range Header Groups do not affect the stored compression state.
If a range references a header index that has not yet been allocated,
the deserialization MUST terminate with an error. This likely means
that the compression state has become out of sync and needs to be
reestablished.
3.4. Cloned Index Header Group
The serialization of the Cloned Index Header Group consists of the
Header Group Prefix and up to 32 Index+Value pairs. Each Index+Value
pair consists of a leading 8-bit storage index of an existing stored
header followed by a new serialized value. The serialization of the
value depends on the value type (see discussion of Value
serialization below).
The Cloned Header Group affects the stored compression state if, and
only if, the "ephemeral" flag in the Header Group Prefix is NOT set.
If the header group is not marked as being ephemeral, then the
specified value is stored in the next available storage index using
the key name from the referenced storage index.
For instance, assume the dynamic cache currently contains an item at
index #1 with key name "foo" and value "bar", the following causes a
new item to be added to the storage with key name "foo" and value
"baz":
10000000 00000001 00000000 00000100
10111000 01001111 10110101 00100000
An explanation of the value syntax is given a bit later.
If a Cloned Header Group references a header index that has not yet
been allocated, the deserialization MUST terminate with an error.
This likely means that the compression state has become out of sync
and needs to be reestablished.
3.5. Literal Header Group
The serialization of the Literal Header Group consists of the Header
Group Prefix and up to 32 Name+Value pairs. Each Name+Value pair
consists of a length-prefixed sequence of ASCII bytes specifying the
Header Name followed by the serialized value. The serialization of
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the value depends on the value type. The length prefix is encoded as
an unsigned variable length integer (uvarint). The length prefix
SHOULD NOT be longer than five octets and SHOULD NOT specify a value
larger than 0xFFFF.
The Literal Heaer Group affects the stored compression state if, and
only if, the "ephemeral" flag in the Header Group Prefix is NOT set.
If the header group is not marked as being ephemeral, then the
specified key name and value is stored in the next available storage
index.
For instance:
11000000 00000011 01100110 01101111
01101111 00000000 00000010 10111000
01000100 11010010
Stores a new header with name "foo" and value "baz" in the dynamic
cache.
Each Header Group consists of up to 32 distinct Header Instances. If
a particular serialization block contains more than 32 intances of a
given type, then multiple instances of the Header Group Type can be
included in the serialized block. For instance, if a given message
contains 33 index references, the serialized block may contain two
separate Index Header Groups. While this is allowed, it is expected
to be rare.
4. Header Values
Header Values can be one of four types, each identified by a two-bit
identifier.
o 00 -- UTF-8 Text
o 01 -- Numeric
o 10 -- Timetamp
o 11 -- Raw Binary Octets
An individual value MAY consist of up to 32 distinct discreet "value
instances". A value with multiple instances is considered, for all
intensive purposes, to be a single value.
Each serialized value is preceded by an 8-bit Value Prefix.
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00 0 00000
The first two most significant bits specifies the value type.
The third significant bit is a reserved flag. Future iterations of
this specification might make use of this bit.
The final five least-significant bits specify the number of discreet
instances in the value. 00000 indicates that one instance is
included, 11111 indicates that 32 instances are included. The value
MUST contain at least one instance.
The remaining serialization depends entirely on the type.
4.1. UTF-8 Text Values
UTF-8 Text is encoded as a length-prefixed sequence of Huffman-
encoded UTF-8 octets. The length prefix is encoded as an unsigned
variable-length integer specifying the number of octets after
applying the Huffman-encoding.
4.2. Numeric Values
Numeric values are encoded as unsigned variable-length integers
(uvarint) of up to a maximum of 10-octets. Unsigned values larger
than 64-bits (0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF) are supported by this format but
SHOULD NOT be used. Negative values cannot be represented using this
syntax. The uvarint syntax is described below.
4.3. Timestamp Values
Timestamp values are encoded as unsigned variable-length integers
specifying the number of milliseconds that have passed since the
standard Epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00 GMT). The syntax is identical
that used for Numeric Values. Dates prior to the epoch cannot be
represented using this syntax.
Representing timestamps in this manner ensures that timestamps will
always encode using six bytes up and until 2109-05-15T07:35:00 GMT,
then as seven bytes up to and until 19809-03-05T11:03:41 GMT.
4.4. Raw Binary Octet Values
Binary values are encoded as a length prefixed sequence of arbitrary
octets. The length prefix is encoded as an unsigned variable length
integer.
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4.5. Unsigned Variable Length Integer Syntax
The uvarint syntax is identical to that used by Google's protobufs.
They are serialized with the least-significant bytes first in batches
of 7-bits, with the most significant bit per byte reserved as a
continuation bit. Values less than or equal to 127 are serialized
using at most one byte; values less than or equal to 16383 are
serialized using at most two bytes; values less than or equal to
2097151 are serialized using at most three bytes.
def uvarint(num):
return [] if num = 0
ret = []
while(num != 0):
m = num >>> 7 ; unsigned shift left 7 bits
ret.push (byte)((num & ~0x80) | ( m > 0 ? 0x80 : 0x00 ));
num = m;
return ret;
For example, the binary representation of the 32-bit integer 217 is:
00000000 00000000 00000000 11011001
The variable length encoding is:
11011001 00000001
The binary representation of the 32-bit integer 1386210052 is:
01010010 10011111 11100011 00000100
The variable length encoding is:
10000100 11000110 11111111 10010100 00000101
4.6. Huffman Coding
All UTF-8 text values are compressed using a modified static huffman
code. "Modified" because the encoded version may contain compact-
representations of raw, arbitrary UTF-8 bytes that are not covered by
the static huffman code table.
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There are two huffman tables in use, one for HTTP Requests and
another for HTTP Responses, each covers UTF-8 codepoints strictly
less than 128 as well the fifty possible UTF-8 leading octets.
The encoded result MUST end with a specific terminal sequence of bits
called the "HUFFMAN_EOF". Currently, the HUFFMAN_EOF is the same for
both the Request and Response tables, but that could change if the
tables are regenerated. Currently, the HUFFMAN_EOF sequence is
101001.
Codepoints >= 128 are handled by first taking the leading octet of
the UTF-8 representation and serializing it's associated huffman code
from the table to the output stream, then, depending on the octets
value, serializing the six least significant bits from each of the
remaining trailing octets.
For instance, the UTF-8 character U+00D4 (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH
CIRCUMFLEX), with UTF-8 representation of C394 (hex) is encoded as:
11000100 01010010 10010000
The first 8-bits represents the huffman-table prefix, the first six
most significant bytes of the second octet are taken directly from
the six least significant bits of the second UTF-8 byte (0x94).
Following those six bits are the six bits of the HUFFMAN_EOF 101001,
followed by four unset padding bits.
The number of raw UTF-8 bits to write depends on the value of the
leading octet. If the value is between 0xC2 and 0xDF (inclusive),
six bits from the second continuation byte is encoded. If the value
is between 0xE0 and 0xEF (inclusive), six bits from the second and
third continuation bytes are encoded. If the value is between 0xF0
and 0xF4 (inclusive), six bits from the second, third and fourth
continuation bytes are encoded. UTF-8 codepoints that require
greater than four bytes to encode cannot be represented.
5. Security Considerations
TBD
6. References
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6.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
6.2. Informational References
[RFC6265] Barth, A., "HTTP State Management Mechanism", RFC 6265,
April 2011.
Appendix A. Huffman Tables
Request Table
( 0) |11111111|11111111|11111111|0 [25] 1fffffe [25]
( 1) |11111111|11111111|11111111|1 [25] 1ffffff [25]
( 2) |11111111|11111111|11100000 [24] ffffe0 [24]
( 3) |11111111|11111111|11100001 [24] ffffe1 [24]
( 4) |11111111|11111111|11100010 [24] ffffe2 [24]
( 5) |11111111|11111111|11100011 [24] ffffe3 [24]
( 6) |11111111|11111111|11100100 [24] ffffe4 [24]
( 7) |11111111|11111111|11100101 [24] ffffe5 [24]
( 8) |11111111|11111111|11100110 [24] ffffe6 [24]
( 9) |11111111|11111111|11100111 [24] ffffe7 [24]
( 10) |11111111|11111111|11101000 [24] ffffe8 [24]
( 11) |11111111|11111111|11101001 [24] ffffe9 [24]
( 12) |11111111|11111111|11101010 [24] ffffea [24]
( 13) |11111111|11111111|11101011 [24] ffffeb [24]
( 14) |11111111|11111111|11101100 [24] ffffec [24]
( 15) |11111111|11111111|11101101 [24] ffffed [24]
( 16) |11111111|11111111|11101110 [24] ffffee [24]
( 17) |11111111|11111111|11101111 [24] ffffef [24]
( 18) |11111111|11111111|11110000 [24] fffff0 [24]
( 19) |11111111|11111111|11110001 [24] fffff1 [24]
( 20) |11111111|11111111|11110010 [24] fffff2 [24]
( 21) |11111111|11111111|11110011 [24] fffff3 [24]
( 22) |11111111|11111111|11110100 [24] fffff4 [24]
( 23) |11111111|11111111|11110101 [24] fffff5 [24]
( 24) |11111111|11111111|11110110 [24] fffff6 [24]
( 25) |11111111|11111111|11110111 [24] fffff7 [24]
( 26) |11111111|11111111|11111000 [24] fffff8 [24]
( 27) |11111111|11111111|11111001 [24] fffff9 [24]
( 28) |11111111|11111111|11111010 [24] fffffa [24]
( 29) |11111111|11111111|11111011 [24] fffffb [24]
( 30) |11111111|11111111|11111100 [24] fffffc [24]
( 31) |11111111|11111111|11111101 [24] fffffd [24]
' ' ( 32) |11111111|0110 [12] ff6 [12]
'!' ( 33) |11111111|0111 [12] ff7 [12]
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'"' ( 34) |11111111|111010 [14] 3ffa [14]
'#' ( 35) |11111111|1111100 [15] 7ffc [15]
'$' ( 36) |11111111|1111101 [15] 7ffd [15]
'%' ( 37) |011000 [6] 18 [6]
'&' ( 38) |1010100 [7] 54 [7]
''' ( 39) |11111111|1111110 [15] 7ffe [15]
'(' ( 40) |11111111|1000 [12] ff8 [12]
')' ( 41) |11111111|1001 [12] ff9 [12]
'*' ( 42) |11111111|1010 [12] ffa [12]
'+' ( 43) |11111111|1011 [12] ffb [12]
',' ( 44) |11111011|10 [10] 3ee [10]
'-' ( 45) |011001 [6] 19 [6]
'.' ( 46) |00010 [5] 2 [5]
'/' ( 47) |00011 [5] 3 [5]
'0' ( 48) |011010 [6] 1a [6]
'1' ( 49) |011011 [6] 1b [6]
'2' ( 50) |011100 [6] 1c [6]
'3' ( 51) |011101 [6] 1d [6]
'4' ( 52) |1010101 [7] 55 [7]
'5' ( 53) |1010110 [7] 56 [7]
'6' ( 54) |1010111 [7] 57 [7]
'7' ( 55) |1011000 [7] 58 [7]
'8' ( 56) |1011001 [7] 59 [7]
'9' ( 57) |1011010 [7] 5a [7]
':' ( 58) |011110 [6] 1e [6]
';' ( 59) |11111011|11 [10] 3ef [10]
'<' ( 60) |11111111|11111111|10 [18] 3fffe [18]
'=' ( 61) |011111 [6] 1f [6]
'>' ( 62) |11111111|11111110|0 [17] 1fffc [17]
'?' ( 63) |11110110|0 [9] 1ec [9]
'@' ( 64) |11111111|11100 [13] 1ffc [13]
'A' ( 65) |10111010 [8] ba [8]
'B' ( 66) |11110110|1 [9] 1ed [9]
'C' ( 67) |10111011 [8] bb [8]
'D' ( 68) |10111100 [8] bc [8]
'E' ( 69) |11110111|0 [9] 1ee [9]
'F' ( 70) |10111101 [8] bd [8]
'G' ( 71) |11111100|00 [10] 3f0 [10]
'H' ( 72) |11111100|01 [10] 3f1 [10]
'I' ( 73) |11110111|1 [9] 1ef [9]
'J' ( 74) |11111100|10 [10] 3f2 [10]
'K' ( 75) |11111111|010 [11] 7fa [11]
'L' ( 76) |11111100|11 [10] 3f3 [10]
'M' ( 77) |11111000|0 [9] 1f0 [9]
'N' ( 78) |11111101|00 [10] 3f4 [10]
'O' ( 79) |11111101|01 [10] 3f5 [10]
'P' ( 80) |11111000|1 [9] 1f1 [9]
'Q' ( 81) |11111101|10 [10] 3f6 [10]
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'R' ( 82) |11111001|0 [9] 1f2 [9]
'S' ( 83) |11111001|1 [9] 1f3 [9]
'T' ( 84) |11111010|0 [9] 1f4 [9]
'U' ( 85) |11111101|11 [10] 3f7 [10]
'V' ( 86) |11111110|00 [10] 3f8 [10]
'W' ( 87) |11111110|01 [10] 3f9 [10]
'X' ( 88) |11111110|10 [10] 3fa [10]
'Y' ( 89) |11111110|11 [10] 3fb [10]
'Z' ( 90) |11111111|00 [10] 3fc [10]
'[' ( 91) |11111111|111011 [14] 3ffb [14]
'\' ( 92) |11111111|11111111|11111110 [24] fffffe [24]
']' ( 93) |11111111|111100 [14] 3ffc [14]
'^' ( 94) |11111111|111101 [14] 3ffd [14]
'_' ( 95) |1011011 [7] 5b [7]
'`' ( 96) |11111111|11111111|110 [19] 7fffe [19]
'a' ( 97) |00100 [5] 4 [5]
'b' ( 98) |1011100 [7] 5c [7]
'c' ( 99) |00101 [5] 5 [5]
'd' (100) |100000 [6] 20 [6]
'e' (101) |0000 [4] 0 [4]
'f' (102) |100001 [6] 21 [6]
'g' (103) |100010 [6] 22 [6]
'h' (104) |100011 [6] 23 [6]
'i' (105) |00110 [5] 6 [5]
'j' (106) |10111110 [8] be [8]
'k' (107) |10111111 [8] bf [8]
'l' (108) |100100 [6] 24 [6]
'm' (109) |100101 [6] 25 [6]
'n' (110) |100110 [6] 26 [6]
'o' (111) |00111 [5] 7 [5]
'p' (112) |01000 [5] 8 [5]
'q' (113) |11111010|1 [9] 1f5 [9]
'r' (114) |01001 [5] 9 [5]
's' (115) |01010 [5] a [5]
't' (116) |01011 [5] b [5]
'u' (117) |100111 [6] 27 [6]
'v' (118) |11000000 [8] c0 [8]
'w' (119) |101000 [6] 28 [6]
'x' (120) |11000001 [8] c1 [8]
'y' (121) |11000010 [8] c2 [8]
'z' (122) |11111011|0 [9] 1f6 [9]
'{' (123) |11111111|11111110|1 [17] 1fffd [17]
'|' (124) |11111111|1100 [12] ffc [12]
'}' (125) |11111111|11111111|0 [17] 1fffe [17]
'~' (126) |11111111|1101 [12] ffd [12]
(127) |101001 [6] 29 [6]
(0xC2) |11000011 [8] c3 [8]
(0xC3) |11000100 [8] c4 [8]
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(0xC4) |11000101 [8] c5 [8]
(0xC5) |11000110 [8] c6 [8]
(0xC6) |11000111 [8] c7 [8]
(0xC7) |11001000 [8] c8 [8]
(0xC8) |11001001 [8] c9 [8]
(0xC9) |11001010 [8] ca [8]
(0xCA) |11001011 [8] cb [8]
(0xCB) |11001100 [8] cc [8]
(0xCC) |11001101 [8] cd [8]
(0xCD) |11001110 [8] ce [8]
(0xCE) |11001111 [8] cf [8]
(0xCF) |11010000 [8] d0 [8]
(0xD0) |11010001 [8] d1 [8]
(0xD1) |11010010 [8] d2 [8]
(0xD2) |11010011 [8] d3 [8]
(0xD3) |11010100 [8] d4 [8]
(0xD4) |11010101 [8] d5 [8]
(0xD5) |11010110 [8] d6 [8]
(0xD6) |11010111 [8] d7 [8]
(0xD7) |11011000 [8] d8 [8]
(0xD8) |11011001 [8] d9 [8]
(0xD9) |11011010 [8] da [8]
(0xDA) |11011011 [8] db [8]
(0xDB) |11011100 [8] dc [8]
(0xDC) |11011101 [8] dd [8]
(0xDD) |11011110 [8] de [8]
(0xDE) |11011111 [8] df [8]
(0xDF) |11100000 [8] e0 [8]
(0xE0) |11100001 [8] e1 [8]
(0xE1) |11100010 [8] e2 [8]
(0xE2) |11100011 [8] e3 [8]
(0xE3) |11100100 [8] e4 [8]
(0xE4) |11100101 [8] e5 [8]
(0xE5) |11100110 [8] e6 [8]
(0xE6) |11100111 [8] e7 [8]
(0xE7) |11101000 [8] e8 [8]
(0xE8) |11101001 [8] e9 [8]
(0xE9) |11101010 [8] ea [8]
(0xEA) |11101011 [8] eb [8]
(0xEB) |11101100 [8] ec [8]
(0xEC) |11101101 [8] ed [8]
(0xED) |11101110 [8] ee [8]
(0xEE) |11101111 [8] ef [8]
(0xEF) |11110000 [8] f0 [8]
(0xF0) |11110001 [8] f1 [8]
(0xF1) |11110010 [8] f2 [8]
(0xF2) |11110011 [8] f3 [8]
(0xF3) |11110100 [8] f4 [8]
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(0xF4) |11110101 [8] f5 [8]
Response Table:
( 0) |11111111|11111111|11111111|0 [25] 1fffffe [25]
( 1) |11111111|11111111|11111111|1 [25] 1ffffff [25]
( 2) |11111111|11111111|11100000 [24] ffffe0 [24]
( 3) |11111111|11111111|11100001 [24] ffffe1 [24]
( 4) |11111111|11111111|11100010 [24] ffffe2 [24]
( 5) |11111111|11111111|11100011 [24] ffffe3 [24]
( 6) |11111111|11111111|11100100 [24] ffffe4 [24]
( 7) |11111111|11111111|11100101 [24] ffffe5 [24]
( 8) |11111111|11111111|11100110 [24] ffffe6 [24]
( 9) |11111111|11111111|11100111 [24] ffffe7 [24]
( 10) |11111111|11111111|11101000 [24] ffffe8 [24]
( 11) |11111111|11111111|11101001 [24] ffffe9 [24]
( 12) |11111111|11111111|11101010 [24] ffffea [24]
( 13) |11111111|11111111|11101011 [24] ffffeb [24]
( 14) |11111111|11111111|11101100 [24] ffffec [24]
( 15) |11111111|11111111|11101101 [24] ffffed [24]
( 16) |11111111|11111111|11101110 [24] ffffee [24]
( 17) |11111111|11111111|11101111 [24] ffffef [24]
( 18) |11111111|11111111|11110000 [24] fffff0 [24]
( 19) |11111111|11111111|11110001 [24] fffff1 [24]
( 20) |11111111|11111111|11110010 [24] fffff2 [24]
( 21) |11111111|11111111|11110011 [24] fffff3 [24]
( 22) |11111111|11111111|11110100 [24] fffff4 [24]
( 23) |11111111|11111111|11110101 [24] fffff5 [24]
( 24) |11111111|11111111|11110110 [24] fffff6 [24]
( 25) |11111111|11111111|11110111 [24] fffff7 [24]
( 26) |11111111|11111111|11111000 [24] fffff8 [24]
( 27) |11111111|11111111|11111001 [24] fffff9 [24]
( 28) |11111111|11111111|11111010 [24] fffffa [24]
( 29) |11111111|11111111|11111011 [24] fffffb [24]
( 30) |11111111|11111111|11111100 [24] fffffc [24]
( 31) |11111111|11111111|11111101 [24] fffffd [24]
' ' ( 32) |11111111|0110 [12] ff6 [12]
'!' ( 33) |11111111|0111 [12] ff7 [12]
'"' ( 34) |11111111|111010 [14] 3ffa [14]
'#' ( 35) |11111111|1111100 [15] 7ffc [15]
'$' ( 36) |11111111|1111101 [15] 7ffd [15]
'%' ( 37) |011000 [6] 18 [6]
'&' ( 38) |1010100 [7] 54 [7]
''' ( 39) |11111111|1111110 [15] 7ffe [15]
'(' ( 40) |11111111|1000 [12] ff8 [12]
')' ( 41) |11111111|1001 [12] ff9 [12]
'*' ( 42) |11111111|1010 [12] ffa [12]
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'+' ( 43) |11111111|1011 [12] ffb [12]
',' ( 44) |11111011|10 [10] 3ee [10]
'-' ( 45) |011001 [6] 19 [6]
'.' ( 46) |00010 [5] 2 [5]
'/' ( 47) |00011 [5] 3 [5]
'0' ( 48) |011010 [6] 1a [6]
'1' ( 49) |011011 [6] 1b [6]
'2' ( 50) |011100 [6] 1c [6]
'3' ( 51) |011101 [6] 1d [6]
'4' ( 52) |1010101 [7] 55 [7]
'5' ( 53) |1010110 [7] 56 [7]
'6' ( 54) |1010111 [7] 57 [7]
'7' ( 55) |1011000 [7] 58 [7]
'8' ( 56) |1011001 [7] 59 [7]
'9' ( 57) |1011010 [7] 5a [7]
':' ( 58) |011110 [6] 1e [6]
';' ( 59) |11111011|11 [10] 3ef [10]
'<' ( 60) |11111111|11111111|10 [18] 3fffe [18]
'=' ( 61) |011111 [6] 1f [6]
'>' ( 62) |11111111|11111110|0 [17] 1fffc [17]
'?' ( 63) |11110110|0 [9] 1ec [9]
'@' ( 64) |11111111|11100 [13] 1ffc [13]
'A' ( 65) |10111010 [8] ba [8]
'B' ( 66) |11110110|1 [9] 1ed [9]
'C' ( 67) |10111011 [8] bb [8]
'D' ( 68) |10111100 [8] bc [8]
'E' ( 69) |11110111|0 [9] 1ee [9]
'F' ( 70) |10111101 [8] bd [8]
'G' ( 71) |11111100|00 [10] 3f0 [10]
'H' ( 72) |11111100|01 [10] 3f1 [10]
'I' ( 73) |11110111|1 [9] 1ef [9]
'J' ( 74) |11111100|10 [10] 3f2 [10]
'K' ( 75) |11111111|010 [11] 7fa [11]
'L' ( 76) |11111100|11 [10] 3f3 [10]
'M' ( 77) |11111000|0 [9] 1f0 [9]
'N' ( 78) |11111101|00 [10] 3f4 [10]
'O' ( 79) |11111101|01 [10] 3f5 [10]
'P' ( 80) |11111000|1 [9] 1f1 [9]
'Q' ( 81) |11111101|10 [10] 3f6 [10]
'R' ( 82) |11111001|0 [9] 1f2 [9]
'S' ( 83) |11111001|1 [9] 1f3 [9]
'T' ( 84) |11111010|0 [9] 1f4 [9]
'U' ( 85) |11111101|11 [10] 3f7 [10]
'V' ( 86) |11111110|00 [10] 3f8 [10]
'W' ( 87) |11111110|01 [10] 3f9 [10]
'X' ( 88) |11111110|10 [10] 3fa [10]
'Y' ( 89) |11111110|11 [10] 3fb [10]
'Z' ( 90) |11111111|00 [10] 3fc [10]
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'[' ( 91) |11111111|111011 [14] 3ffb [14]
'\' ( 92) |11111111|11111111|11111110 [24] fffffe [24]
']' ( 93) |11111111|111100 [14] 3ffc [14]
'^' ( 94) |11111111|111101 [14] 3ffd [14]
'_' ( 95) |1011011 [7] 5b [7]
'`' ( 96) |11111111|11111111|110 [19] 7fffe [19]
'a' ( 97) |00100 [5] 4 [5]
'b' ( 98) |1011100 [7] 5c [7]
'c' ( 99) |00101 [5] 5 [5]
'd' (100) |100000 [6] 20 [6]
'e' (101) |0000 [4] 0 [4]
'f' (102) |100001 [6] 21 [6]
'g' (103) |100010 [6] 22 [6]
'h' (104) |100011 [6] 23 [6]
'i' (105) |00110 [5] 6 [5]
'j' (106) |10111110 [8] be [8]
'k' (107) |10111111 [8] bf [8]
'l' (108) |100100 [6] 24 [6]
'm' (109) |100101 [6] 25 [6]
'n' (110) |100110 [6] 26 [6]
'o' (111) |00111 [5] 7 [5]
'p' (112) |01000 [5] 8 [5]
'q' (113) |11111010|1 [9] 1f5 [9]
'r' (114) |01001 [5] 9 [5]
's' (115) |01010 [5] a [5]
't' (116) |01011 [5] b [5]
'u' (117) |100111 [6] 27 [6]
'v' (118) |11000000 [8] c0 [8]
'w' (119) |101000 [6] 28 [6]
'x' (120) |11000001 [8] c1 [8]
'y' (121) |11000010 [8] c2 [8]
'z' (122) |11111011|0 [9] 1f6 [9]
'{' (123) |11111111|11111110|1 [17] 1fffd [17]
'|' (124) |11111111|1100 [12] ffc [12]
'}' (125) |11111111|11111111|0 [17] 1fffe [17]
'~' (126) |11111111|1101 [12] ffd [12]
(127) |101001 [6] 29 [6]
(0xC2) |11000011 [8] c3 [8]
(0xC3) |11000100 [8] c4 [8]
(0xC4) |11000101 [8] c5 [8]
(0xC5) |11000110 [8] c6 [8]
(0xC6) |11000111 [8] c7 [8]
(0xC7) |11001000 [8] c8 [8]
(0xC8) |11001001 [8] c9 [8]
(0xC9) |11001010 [8] ca [8]
(0xCA) |11001011 [8] cb [8]
(0xCB) |11001100 [8] cc [8]
(0xCC) |11001101 [8] cd [8]
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(0xCD) |11001110 [8] ce [8]
(0xCE) |11001111 [8] cf [8]
(0xCF) |11010000 [8] d0 [8]
(0xD0) |11010001 [8] d1 [8]
(0xD1) |11010010 [8] d2 [8]
(0xD2) |11010011 [8] d3 [8]
(0xD3) |11010100 [8] d4 [8]
(0xD4) |11010101 [8] d5 [8]
(0xD5) |11010110 [8] d6 [8]
(0xD6) |11010111 [8] d7 [8]
(0xD7) |11011000 [8] d8 [8]
(0xD8) |11011001 [8] d9 [8]
(0xD9) |11011010 [8] da [8]
(0xDA) |11011011 [8] db [8]
(0xDB) |11011100 [8] dc [8]
(0xDC) |11011101 [8] dd [8]
(0xDD) |11011110 [8] de [8]
(0xDE) |11011111 [8] df [8]
(0xDF) |11100000 [8] e0 [8]
(0xE0) |11100001 [8] e1 [8]
(0xE1) |11100010 [8] e2 [8]
(0xE2) |11100011 [8] e3 [8]
(0xE3) |11100100 [8] e4 [8]
(0xE4) |11100101 [8] e5 [8]
(0xE5) |11100110 [8] e6 [8]
(0xE6) |11100111 [8] e7 [8]
(0xE7) |11101000 [8] e8 [8]
(0xE8) |11101001 [8] e9 [8]
(0xE9) |11101010 [8] ea [8]
(0xEA) |11101011 [8] eb [8]
(0xEB) |11101100 [8] ec [8]
(0xEC) |11101101 [8] ed [8]
(0xED) |11101110 [8] ee [8]
(0xEE) |11101111 [8] ef [8]
(0xEF) |11110000 [8] f0 [8]
(0xF0) |11110001 [8] f1 [8]
(0xF1) |11110010 [8] f2 [8]
(0xF2) |11110011 [8] f3 [8]
(0xF3) |11110100 [8] f4 [8]
(0xF4) |11110101 [8] f5 [8]
Appendix B. Static Storage Cache
0x80 "date" = NIL
0x81 ":scheme" = "https"
0x82 ":scheme" = "http"
0x83 ":scheme" = "ftp"
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0x84 ":method" = "get"
0x85 ":method" = "post"
0x86 ":method" = "put"
0x87 ":method" = "delete"
0x88 ":method" = "options"
0x89 ":method" = "patch"
0x8A ":method" = "connect"
0x8B ":path" = "/"
0x8C ":host" = NIL
0x8D "cookie" = NIL
0x8E ":status" = 100
0x8F ":status" = 101
0x90 ":status" = 102
0x91 ":status" = 200
0x92 ":status" = 201
0x93 ":status" = 202
0x94 ":status" = 203
0x95 ":status" = 204
0x96 ":status" = 205
0x97 ":status" = 206
0x98 ":status" = 207
0x99 ":status" = 208
0x9A ":status" = 300
0x9B ":status" = 301
0x9C ":status" = 302
0x9D ":status" = 303
0x9E ":status" = 304
0x9F ":status" = 305
0xA0 ":status" = 307
0xA1 ":status" = 308
0xA2 ":status" = 400
0xA3 ":status" = 401
0xA4 ":status" = 402
0xA5 ":status" = 403
0xA6 ":status" = 404
0xA7 ":status" = 405
0xA8 ":status" = 406
0xA9 ":status" = 407
0xAA ":status" = 408
0xAB ":status" = 409
0xAC ":status" = 410
0xAD ":status" = 411
0xAE ":status" = 412
0xAF ":status" = 413
0xB0 ":status" = 414
0xB1 ":status" = 415
0xB2 ":status" = 416
0xB3 ":status" = 417
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0xB4 ":status" = 500
0xB5 ":status" = 501
0xB6 ":status" = 502
0xB7 ":status" = 503
0xB8 ":status" = 504
0xB9 ":status" = 505
0xBA ":status-text" = "OK"
0xBB ":version" = "1.1"
0xBC "accept" = NIL
0xBD "accept-charset" = NIL
0xBE "accept-encoding" = NIL
0xBF "accept-language" = NIL
0xC0 "accept-ranges" = NIL
0xC1 "allow" = NIL
0xC2 "authorization" = NIL
0xC3 "cache-control" = NIL
0xC4 "content-base" = NIL
0xC5 "content-encoding" = NIL
0xC6 "content-length" = NIL
0xC7 "content-location" = NIL
0xC8 "content-md5" = NIL
0xC9 "content-range" = NIL
0xCA "content-type" = NIL
0xCB "content-disposition" = NIL
0xCC "content-language" = NIL
0xCD "etag" = NIL
0xCE "expect" = NIL
0xCF "expires" = NIL
0xD0 "from" = NIL
0xD1 "if-match" = NIL
0xD2 "if-modified-since" = NIL
0xD3 "if-none-match" = NIL
0xD4 "if-range" = NIL
0xD5 "if-unmodified-since" = NIL
0xD6 "last-modified" = NIL
0xD7 "location" = NIL
0xD8 "max-forwards" = NIL
0xD9 "origin" = NIL
0xDA "pragma" = NIL
0xDB "proxy-authenticate" = NIL
0xDC "proxy-authorization" = NIL
0xDD "range" = NIL
0xDE "referer" = NIL
0xDF "retry-after" = NIL
0xE0 "server" = NIL
0xE1 "set-cookie" = NIL
0xE2 "status" = NIL
0xE3 "te" = NIL
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0xE4 "trailer" = NIL
0xE5 "transfer-encoding" = NIL
0xE6 "upgrade" = NIL
0xE7 "user-agent" = NIL
0xE8 "vary" = NIL
0xE9 "via" = NIL
0xEA "warning" = NIL
0xEB "www-authenticate" = NIL
0xEC "access-control-allow-origin" = NIL
0xED "get-dictionary" = NIL
0xEE "p3p" = NIL
0xEF "link" = NIL
0xF0 "prefer" = NIL
0xF1 "preference-applied" = NIL
0xF2 "accept-patch" = NIL
0xF3 NIL
0xF4 NIL
0xF5 NIL
0xF6 NIL
0xF7 NIL
0xF8 NIL
0xF9 NIL
0xFA NIL
0xFB NIL
0xFC NIL
0xFD NIL
0xFE NIL
0xFF NIL
Appendix C. Updated Standard Header Definitions
In order to properly deal with the backwards compatibility concerns
for HTTP/1, there are several important rules for use of Typed Codecs
in HTTP headers:
o All header fields MUST be explicitly defined to use the new header
types. All existing HTTP/1 header fields, then, will continue to
be represented as ISO-8859-1 Text unless their standard
definitions are updated. The HTTP/2 specification would update
the definition of specific known header fields (e.g. content-
length, date, if-modified-since, etc).
o Extension header fields that use the typed codecs will have
specific normative transformations to ISO-8859-1 defined.
* UTF-8 Text will be converted to ISO-8859-1 with extended
characters pct-encoded
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* Numbers will be converted to their ASCII equivalent values.
* Date Times will be converted to their HTTP-Date equivalent
values.
* Binary fields will be Base64-encoded.
o There will be no normative transformation from ISO-8859-1 values
into the typed codecs. Implementations are free to apply
transformation where those impls determine it is appropriate, but
it will be perfectly legal for an implementation to pass a text
value through even if it is known that a given header type has a
typed codec equivalent (for instance, Content-Length may come
through as a number or a text value, either will be valid). This
means that when translating from HTTP/1 -> HTTP/2, receiving
implementations need to be prepared to handle either value form.
A Note of warning: Individual header fields MAY be defined such that
they can be represented using multiple types. Numeric fields, for
instance, can be represented using either the uvarint encoding or
using the equivalent sequence of ASCII numbers. Implementers will
need to be capable of supporting each of the possible variations.
Designers of header field definitions need to be aware of the
additional complexity and possible issues that allowing for such
alternatives can introduce for implementers.
Based on an initial survey of header fields currently defined by the
HTTPbis specification documents, the following header field
definitions can be updated to make use of the new types
+-----------------------+--------------+----------------------------+
| Field | Type | Description |
+-----------------------+--------------+----------------------------+
| content-length | Numeric or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either an unsigned, |
| | | variable-length integer or |
| | | a sequence of ASCII |
| | | numbers. |
| date | Timestamp or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either a uvarint encoded |
| | | timestamp or as text |
| | | (HTTP-date). |
| max-forwards | Numeric or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either an unsigned, |
| | | variable-length integer or |
| | | a sequence of ASCII |
| | | numbers. |
| retry-after | Timestamp, | Can be represented as |
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| | Numeric or | either a uvarint encoded |
| | Text | timestamp, an unsigned, |
| | | variable-length integer, |
| | | or the text equivalents of |
| | | either (HTTP-date or |
| | | sequence of ASCII numbers) |
| if-modified-since | Timestamp or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either a uvarint encoded |
| | | timestamp or as text |
| | | (HTTP-date). |
| if-unmodified-since | Timestamp or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either a uvarint encoded |
| | | timestamp or as text |
| | | (HTTP-date). |
| last-modified | Timestamp or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either a uvarint encoded |
| | | timestamp or as text |
| | | (HTTP-date). |
| age | Numeric or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either an unsigned, |
| | | variable-length integer or |
| | | a sequence of ASCII |
| | | numbers. |
| expires | Timestamp or | Can be represented as |
| | Text | either a uvarint encoded |
| | | timestamp or as text |
| | | (HTTP-date). |
+-----------------------+--------------+----------------------------+
Appendix D. State Management Alternatives
In the current design, dynamic cache storage slots are assigned by
the decompressor in "encounter order". While this is effective, it
requires that all compressor and decompressor implementations utilize
the exact same algorithm for assigning storage slots, precluding any
implementation from experimenting with more efficient algorithms. An
alternative approach is to allow the compressor to assign the slots
and communicate the assigned slots with each header. This would
require a single additional byte per header instance in the Literal
and Cloned Header Groups.
The serialization syntax for Cloned and Literal Header Groups would
change to:
; Cloned-Index Header Group
cloned-index-header-group = cloned-index-header-prefix
1*32(cache-index cache-index value)
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; Literal Header Group
literal-header-group = literal-header-prefix
1*32(cache-index name value)
The decompressor would used the specified storage index locations to
store header values rather than relying on the encounter order,
increasing the general efficiency of the algorithm with a minimal
impact on transmission size.
On the downside, this puts the compressor in greater control over the
decompressor-maintained state because the decompressor would not know
how long it needs to hold on to stored items. This opens the
decompressor up to possible abuse from malicious compressors. The
current least-recently-written cache approach allows the decompressor
to reliably drop items as space fills without fear of falling out of
sync with the compressor.
Appendix E. Alternative Timestamp encodings
This specification currently uses the number of milliseconds from the
UNIX Epoch to represent timestamps. This 64-bit number is encoded
using the same uvarint encoding as Numeric fields. This means that
the timestamp is encoded using a variable width that, right now (for
about the next 100 years or so), will encode in six bytes, then seven
bytes for the reasonable future.
One possible alternative approach we can take is similar to NTP's
handling of Era's. We can take the current timestamp and generate an
Era value, with a maximum of 255 (0xFF). This is used as a
multiplier for the timestamp value. The two values are calculated
using the following formula:
m = 4294967296000
now = milliseconds since UNIX Epoch
era = now / m
ts = now % m
The allowable values for "era" would be capped at 255. This value is
encoded as a single byte, followed by a uvarint encoding of ts. This
ensures that the timestamp will never be encoded using more than
7-bytes total, though it may be encoded in as few as two bytes on
extremely rare occasions (specifically, immediately following each
era rollover).
Wire Syntax:
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era = %x00-FF
ts = uvarint
date-time = era ts
To convert back to the Epoch, the formula is equally simple:
now = era * m + ts
The largest date we can encode using this format is
"36812-02-20T00:36:15.999Z". Dates prior to the epoch cannot be
represented.
The significant drawback with this approach is that current dates
would encode in 7-bytes until the next era rollover, which will occur
at approximately 2106-02-07T06:28:15.999Z (give or take a few leap
seconds thrown in here and there).
Note: The byte lengths assume we want millisecond precision. If we
opted to keep the second precision currently in HTTP/1, then this
alternative encoding ensures that our timestamps never exceed six-
bytes in length.
Appendix F. Alternative uvarint encodings
The uvarint encoding currently specified by this specification is
certainly not the only possible option we can use. I chose it simply
because it is drop dead simple to implement. There are quite a few
other approaches we can take, each of which can be used as drop-in
replacements for the current approach. Below are just a couple
alternatives. There are plenty others. We just need to pick the one
that we feel will work the best.
It ought to be noted that while each of these schemes vary in details
such as endianess, specific wire-format, etc, each will typically
encode the same numbers using the same number of bytes with
variations of only a single byte only in the edge cases. Processing
time for each is also equivalent when dealing with any number less or
equal to 64-bits in length. This means that the choice is largely a
matter of style than substance.
F.1. Option 1:
With this option, leading bits are used to indicate the total number
of bytes used to encode the number value, with no fixed upper limit.
Values strictly less than 128 are encoded using a single byte.
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0 xxxxxxx
10 xxxxxx OCTET
110 xxxxx 2OCTET
1110 xxxx 3OCTET
11110 xxx 4OCTET
111110 xx 5OCTET
1111110 x 6OCTET
11111110 7OCTET
11111111 0xxxxxxx 7OCTET
11111111 10xxxxxx 8OCTET
...
The number of leading 1 bits specify the number of additional bytes
used to serialize the value. A single 0 bit is used to mark the end
of this prefix, the remaining bits are used to encode the minimum
bits necessary to encode the value (with appropriate leading 0 bits
to ensure proper byte-alignment).
For instance, the integer value 500, which is represented in binary
as 00000001 11110100, can be encoded using two bytes, 10000001
11110100
The integer value 9770098, which is represented in binary as 10010101
00010100 01110010, can be encoded using four bytes: 11100000 10010101
00010100 01110010
F.2. Option 2:
This option is generally identical to the previous with the exception
of being capped at a maximum of nine encoded octets total. Rather
than growing indefinitely, the encoded value must never require more
then eight continuation bytes to encode. Because of this
restriction, there is no need for a trailing 0-bit spilling over past
the first leading byte.
0 xxxxxxx
10 xxxxxx OCTET
110 xxxxx 2OCTET
1110 xxxx 3OCTET
11110 xxx 4OCTET
111110 xx 5OCTET
1111110 x 6OCTET
11111110 7OCTET
11111111 8OCTET
...
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The number of leading 1 bits specify the number of additional bytes
used to serialize the value. If the number of bytes required is less
than 8, a single 0 bit is used to mark the end of this prefix, the
remaining bits are used to encode the minimum bits necessary to
encode the value (with appropriate leading 0 bits to ensure proper
byte-alignment).
For instance, the integer value 500, which is represented in binary
as 00000001 11110100, can be encoded using two bytes, 10000001
11110100
The integer value 9770098, which is represented in binary as 10010101
00010100 01110010, can be encoded using four bytes: 11100000 10010101
00010100 01110010
This format is not capable of encoding any number requiring more than
64-bits.
Appendix G. Set-Cookie and Cookie Alternatives
The Cookie and Set-Cookie header fields are interesting in that they
establish a subordinate layer of key+value pairs exchanged within an
HTTP dialog. Up to this point, Cookies have been handled largely as
blobs of text, which is generally inefficient and inflexible. Even
though it works, the design is not optimum.
The introduction of a new header serialization mechanism and HTTP/2's
new framing provides us with an interesting opportunity to make
significant improvements to the way cookies work.
Consider, for example, rather than defining Set-Cookie as a header
field, we could create a modified Headers Frame that contains header
fields that ought to be persisted and returned by the client.
The new Headers Frame flags would be:
o P (0x1) - Persist. If set, the headers in this frame are to be
persistently stored and returned in subsequent streams.
o C (0x2) - Clear. If set, any existing stored state is cleared.
o E (0x4) - Ephemeral. If set, state is only stored for the
duration of this connection.
o H (0x8) - HttpOnly. Equivalent to Set-Cookie HttpOnly parameter.
o S (0x10) - Secure. Equivalent to Set-Cookie Secure parameter.
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These flags would pertain only to the header fields contained by the
one Headers frame.
Within the header block, similar to how special ':' prefixed HTTP
header fields are handled, there would be a handful of special ':'
fields:
o :host - text, equivalent to the Set-Cookie domain parameter
o :path - text, equivalent to the Set-Cookie path parameter
o :expires - timestamp or text
o :max-age - uvarint or text
When the Server wishes to send Cookies to the client, rather than
sending a separate Set-Cookie header for every individual name+value
pair it wishes the client to persist, it would send a Stateful Header
Frame. The client would receive this, persist the contained set of
name+value pairs just as it would persist cookies today, then return
those to the server in a separate Headers Frame in all appropriate
subsequent streams.
This approach has a number of distinct advantages of the current Set-
Cookies mechanism:
o Currently, handling Set-Cookie requires it's own separate parsing
logic. With this new approach, we would leverage the same header
block encoding as all other types of headers, without the need for
problematic and error-prone text parsing logic.
o Currently, the Set-Cookie Expires and Max-Age parameters use
inefficient ASCII encodings, with this new approach, those fields
are encoded using efficient variable-length encodings and allow
multiple key+value pairs to be stored with the same expiration to
eliminate redundancy.
o Currently, cookie values are limited to a specific ASCII subset.
With this new approach, Cookie values can take advantage of the
exact same value type codecs described in this document. Cookie
values could be text, numeric, timestamps or raw binary, providing
significant new options.
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For example, suppose the server wishes the client to store two
cookies for 10 seconds with the HttpOnly and Secure flags set. The
server wishes the client to also clear any previous cookies it had
stored. To accomplish this, the server would send a Stateful Headers
Frame to the client with bit flags P, C, H and S set to 1 and the
following key-value pairs encoded in the serialized header block:
:host = "example.com"
:path = "/"
:max-age = 10
foo = "bar"
baz = 123
Upon creating a new streams for the domain "example.com" and path "/
", the client would include the "foo" and "baz" header fields in the
set of headers encoded in the request:
:method = GET
:path = "/foo"
:host = "example.com"
foo = "bar"
baz = 123
Note that this approach is backwards compatible with Set-Cookie and
Cookie in that those header fields could continue to be used by
existing implementations.
Author's Address
James M Snell
Email: jasnell@gmail.com
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