EP194: Evolution of HTTP

HTTP has evolved from HTTP/0.9's simple GET requests to HTTP/3's UDP-based QUIC protocol, improving performance through persistent connections, multiplexing, and reduced latency. Key system performance metrics include QPS (queries per second), TPS (transactions per second), concurrency, and response time, with the relationship QPS = Concurrency ÷ Average Response Time. Nginx gained popularity over Apache through its event-driven architecture, serving as a high-performance web server, reverse proxy, load balancer, and caching layer. Essential network debugging commands include ping, traceroute, ss, dig, tcpdump, and iperf3 for diagnosing connectivity and performance issues. Network devices operate at different OSI layers: hubs broadcast at Layer 1, switches forward frames using MAC addresses at Layer 2, and routers direct packets using IP addresses at Layer 3.