Mastering Internet of Things

Encoding content

To distinguish between the different types of content possible to transport using HTTP, an interoperability layer has been built into the protocol. The encoding of any payload is identified using an Internet Content Type or Media Type. By always including this type of information with the payload, the receiver can always determine if it can decode the payload, and how. Today, Media Types are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority or IANA.

These Media Types were originally designed for use with email, and are therefore also called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, or MIME types. The format of Media Types is defined by the IETF in RFC 2046: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2046

The basic structure of a Media ...