WebSocket is a framework bidirectional protocol. In contrast, HTTP is a one-way protocol that works on top of the TCP protocol. Because the WebSocket protocol can support uninterrupted data transmission, it is mainly used for real-time application development. HTTP is stateless and used to develop RESTful and SOAP applications. SOAP can still be implemented using HTTP, but REST is widely spread and used.
In WebSocket, the communication happens on both ends, which makes it a faster protocol. Cellular and Industrial IoT In HTTP, the connection is established at one end, which makes it a bit slower than WebSocket. WebSocket uses a unified TCP connection that requires one party to terminate the connection. Until it happens, the connection stays alive. HTTP requires separate connections for separate requests. After the request is completed, the connection is automatically disconnected.
WebSocket connections can be encrypted, and TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol can be used to protect data security. This encrypted connection uses the wss:// protocol prefix, as opposed to the ws:// protocol prefix used by unencrypted connections. In addition, WebSocket also supports the Smart construction Secure Handshake Protocol (Secure Handshake Protocol), which makes it possible to encrypt communication between the browser and the server. In general, WebSocket has high security and can protect data security.
In addition, it should be noted that WebSocket is not a new protocol based on HTTP, because WebSocket only uses HTTP when establishing a connection, and it no longer has any relationship with HTTP after the upgrade is completed.