How the Web was Won : Keeping the computer networking curriculum current with HTTP/2

Abstract

The Internet and the Web continue to grow in their pervasiveness and as new functionality and behavior emerge it is a challenge to keep the computer networking curriculum up to date. There are many excellent networking textbooks available but they cannot always keep pace with the rate of change. Recent developments in HTTP are a good example of this situation. Since around 2012 many of the web transactions between popular browsers and major web sites have been using a protocol called SPDY, which operates significantly differently from HTTP version 1.1 - the version covered in networking textbooks. SPDY has been largely adopted into the final standard of HTTP version 2. This paper seeks to fill the gap between current textbooks and the versions of HTTP now in use. It gives an overview of HTTP evolution from a technical perspective before suggesting materials and approaches that can be used as learning resources for the topic and how conceptual understanding can be reinforced through hands-on activities which use browsers' native network monitoring capabilities and other readily available tools.