Is HTTP/2 really faster than HTTP/1.1?

HTTP/2 is the next generation of the HTTP protocol, and as such, it is supposed to solve past issues and to bring improved performances. Through thorough experiments, we try to bring reliable figures on this new version of the protocol. To do this, we adopt a methodological approach, taking newly introduced features into consideration: compression, multiplexing, server push and priority. Previous studies have shown the SPDY protocol to behave worse than HTTP on cellular networks. Similarly, in this paper, we highlight that HTTP/2 is negatively impacted by packet loss which is characteristic of cellular networks. We also experimented on server push and priority to understand their behavior. Because these mechanisms leave a lot of freedom to implementers, they have high potential; and right now they are under-exploited. Overall, we get practical information on how much one can gain by switching their services to HTTP/2.