What is the benefit of using HTTP/2 in Envoy?

The benefit of using HTTP/2 in Envoy primarily revolves around its ability to allow multiplexing streams, which significantly enhances performance. HTTP/2 enables the simultaneous handling of multiple requests and responses over a single connection. This means that multiple streams of data can be sent concurrently without blocking each other, in contrast to HTTP/1.1, where a new connection must be established for each request unless pipelining is utilized, which can lead to head-of-line blocking.

By allowing multiple simultaneous interactions between the client and the server, HTTP/2 minimizes latency, reduces the number of connections needed, and improves overall throughput. This capability is especially beneficial in high-load environments where multiple resources are required quickly and efficiently. Additionally, HTTP/2 includes other performance optimizations such as header compression and prioritization of requests, which further contribute to its efficiency.

Using HTTP/2 with Envoy can leverage these advantages to handle more requests without significant resource expenditure, thus improving the user experience in applications relying on Envoy for routing and managing traffic.