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by igrigorik 5548 days ago
SCTP addresses some of the same needs (primarily the multiplexing), but the major hurdle there is the fact that we're ditching TCP. As far as an upgrade path goes: it is much harder to get existing servers to support SCTP (think about Apache, Nginx, etc), then to bolt on support for a different application-level protocl (replace/augment HTTP with SPDY).
2 comments
piotrSikora 5548 days ago
I disagree. It's much, much easier to support SCTP (since it's already provided by the operating system) than it is to support SPDY with all the server pushes, etc.

But to be honest, I don't know what was the source of such comparison... It's apples to oranges.

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mbelshe 5547 days ago
SCTP is not available on Windows by default, and you need administrative privileges to deploy it. I'm not trying to start an OS war debate, but this is a very practical problem.

Mobile, oddly enough, may be the best route to bring both IPv6 and SCTP to life.

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piotrSikora 5547 days ago
Good point... But we were talking about servers ;)
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bostonvaulter2 5547 days ago
Wouldn't SCTP need to be installed on both the client and the server?
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piotrSikora 5547 days ago
Yes (for adoption) and no (for having server support).

But those are two very different problems ;)

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mbelshe 5546 days ago
Heh - I didn't think a server side SCTP implementation was very interesting if you don't have clients to use it.
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rfugger 5547 days ago
The source of the comparison is that the main thrust of both SCTP and SPDY is multiplexing multiple independent data streams on a single connection.
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piotrSikora 5547 days ago
Is is, really? For me multiplexing is just nice addition to SPDY.

Personally, I consider "server pushes" as the main feature and "full encryption and compression" as nice improvements.

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Lennie 5543 days ago
Well, the primary reason for the existence of SPDY is encryption everywhere and speed. Something which with current HTTP/HTTPS doesn't really exist. HTTPS is still slower than HTTP and HTTP is slower than SPDY.

A lot of the speed increase comes from the use of multiplexing. So without it, it wouldn't be able to achieve most of it's goals.

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newman314 5548 days ago
afaik, nginx does not have support for spdy
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