RFC 2756 (rfc2756) - Page 1 of 15

Hyper Text Caching Protocol (HTCP/0

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Network Working Group                                            P. Vixie
Request for Comments: 2756                                            ISC
Category: Experimental                                         D. Wessels
                                                                    NLANR
                                                             January 2000


                 Hyper Text Caching Protocol (HTCP/0.0)


Status of this Memo

   This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
   Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document describes HTCP, a protocol for discovering HTTP caches
   and cached data, managing sets of HTTP caches, and monitoring cache
   activity.  This is an experimental protocol, one among several
   proposals to perform these functions.

1.  Definitions, Rationale and Scope

   1.1.  HTTP/1.1 (see [RFC 2616]) permits the transfer of web objects
   from "origin servers," possibly via "proxies" (which are allowed
   under some circumstances to "cache" such objects for subsequent
   reuse) to "clients" which consume the object in some way, usually by
   displaying it as part of a "web page."  HTTP/1.0 and later permit
   "headers" to be included in a request and/or a response, thus
   expanding upon the HTTP/0.9 (and earlier) behaviour of specifying
   only a URI in the request and offering only a body in the response.

   1.2.  ICP (see [RFC 2186]) permits caches to be queried as to their
   content, usually by other caches who are hoping to avoid an expensive
   fetch from a distant origin server.  ICP was designed with HTTP/0.9
   in mind, such that only the URI (without any headers) is used when
   describing cached content, and the possibility of multiple compatible
   bodies for the same URI had not yet been imagined.






Vixie & Wessels               Experimental
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