httpdt

Httpdt is an experimental concept that envisions delivering HTTP messages over a datagram transport rather than a standard reliable byte stream. The goal is to reduce latency and head-of-line blocking in networks where datagram delivery can be faster or more robust than TCP, by transmitting individual HTTP requests and responses as discrete datagrams and handling reliability, ordering, and multiplexing at the application layer.

Origins and status: The term and related ideas appear in academic work and informal discussions from the 2010s onward. Httpdt is not a standardized protocol and has no widely adopted specification. It remains primarily of research and educational interest, with limited practical deployment beyond prototype systems and experimental libraries. It competes conceptually with protocols that already exploit datagram transports, most notably HTTP/3 over QUIC.

Technical overview: In typical httpdt designs, each HTTP message is framed into one or more datagrams with identifiers to support multiplexing. Because datagram transports do not guarantee delivery or order, the protocol provides its own lightweight mechanisms for sequencing, optional reliability, and loss recovery. Security is commonly added via a TLS-like layer or by borrowing security features from the underlying datagram transport. Performance benefits hinge on reduced head-of-line blocking and better handling of lossy networks, but these gains depend on effective reliability and congestion control at the application layer.

Use, challenges, and outlook: Potential use cases include latency-sensitive applications and certain IoT scenarios. Major challenges include NAT/firewall traversal, interoperability, security complexity, and the difficulty of achieving robust congestion control without a standardized base. As of now, httpdt remains experimental with no broad adoption. See also HTTP/3, QUIC, and datagram-based communication.