RFC 3205 (rfc3205) - Page 1 of 14

On the use of HTTP as a Substrate

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Network Working Group                                           K. Moore
Request for Comments: 3205                       University of Tennessee
BCP: 56                                                    February 2002
Category: Best Current Practice


                   On the use of HTTP as a Substrate

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
   Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   Recently there has been widespread interest in using Hypertext
   Transfer Protocol (HTTP) as a substrate for other applications-level
   protocols.  This document recommends technical particulars of such
   use, including use of default ports, URL schemes, and HTTP security
   mechanisms.

1. Introduction

   Recently there has been widespread interest in using Hypertext
   Transfer Protocol (HTTP) [1] as a substrate for other applications-
   level protocols.  Various reasons cited for this interest have
   included:

   o  familiarity and mindshare,

   o  compatibility with widely deployed browsers,

   o  ability to reuse existing servers and client libraries,

   o  ease of prototyping servers using CGI scripts and similar
      extension mechanisms,

   o  ability to use existing security mechanisms such as HTTP digest
      authentication [2] and SSL or TLS [3],

   o  the ability of HTTP to traverse firewalls, and

   o  cases where a server often needs to support HTTP anyway.



Moore                    Best Current Practice
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