HTTP 'Next Generation'

We report on the results of the Protocol Design Group of the W3C's HTTP 'Ne xt Generation' Activity. The group produced and measured a prototype that s hows that it is possible, largely using familiar engineering principles, to make simultaneous improvements in the following problem areas of HTTP/1.1: (1) the layering of other application protocols over HTTP; (2) modularity and extensibility; (3) networking performance and fairness; (4) the rigid b inding between identifiers and protocol stacks; and (5) the opacity of laye red traffic to firewalls. The prototype also suggests that these can be don e in a way that may lead to unifying the Web with related middleware system s such as COM, CORBA, and Java RMI. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.