Web Transfer Protocol

HTTP transfers Web pages.

The Internet is made up of a variety of traffic but the category is best known to the general public is the "World Wide Web." This is a series of linked web pages transferred from a web server to a web browser. This transfer of data is carried by the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Features

HTTP was specifically designed as the Web transfer protocol and it still dominates the transfer of data. Most Web pages are written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It is from this name that HTTP gets it's "Hypertext" name.

Function

HTTP is an application that relies on other protocols to format data for transport and packages it in segments with header data intended to assist its transit across networks. HTTP itself is a text-based protocol that has to be converted into binary data, and ultimately an electronic pulse, to be carried over cables.

Operations

HTTP is a very simple system, intended to be a lightweight Web transfer protocol, designed for the days when the Internet had little capacity. It does not provide any flow control or data integrity checks.

References

• Web Developer's Virtual Library: HyperText Transfer Protocol
• Internet Engineering Task Force: Datatracker: 2616
• Academic Tutorials: HTTP and HTTPS Protocols