Hypertext Transfer Protocol Bis (httpbis)

Last Modified: 2008-08-21

Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis

Chair(s):

Applications Area Director(s):

Applications Area Advisor:

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: ietf-http-wg@w3.org
To Subscribe: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/
Archive:

Description of Working Group:

HTTP is one of the most successful and widely-used protocols on the
Internet today. However, its specification has several editorial
issues. Additionally, after years of implementation and extension,
several ambiguities have become evident, impairing interoperability
and the ability to easily implement and use HTTP.

The working group will refine RFC2616 to:
* Incorporate errata and updates (e.g., references, IANA registries,
ABNF)
* Fix editorial problems which have led to misunderstandings of the
specification
* Clarify conformance requirements
* Remove known ambiguities where they affect interoperability
* Clarify existing methods of extensibility
* Remove or deprecate those features that are not widely implemented
and also unduly affect interoperability
* Where necessary, add implementation advice
* Document the security properties of HTTP and its associated
echanisms (e.g., Basic and Digest authentication, cookies, TLS) for
common applications

In doing so, it should consider:
* Implementer experience
* Demonstrated use of HTTP
* Impact on existing implementations and deployments

The Working Group must not introduce a new version of HTTP and should
not add new functionality to HTTP. The WG is not tasked with producing
new methods, headers, or extension mechanisms, but may introduce new
protocol elements if necessary as part of revising existing
functionality which has proven to be problematic

The Working Group's specification deliverables are:
* A document that is suitable to supersede RFC 2616
* A document cataloguing the security properties of HTTP

Goals and Milestones:

Done  First HTTP Revision Internet Draft
Feb 2008  First HTTP Security Properties Internet Draft
Jun 2008  Request Last Call for HTTP Revision
Jul 2008  Request Last Call for HTTP Security Properties
Oct 2008  Submit HTTP Revision to IESG for consideration as a Draft Standard
Oct 2008  Submit HTTP Security Properties to IESG for consideration as Informational

Internet-Drafts:

HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing (196308 bytes)
HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics (127378 bytes)
HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation (100475 bytes)
HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests (53638 bytes)
HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses (50259 bytes)
HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching (80642 bytes)
HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication (30496 bytes)
Initial Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Method Registrations (10844 bytes)

No Request For Comments

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