Editing OBject EXchange (section)

==Comparison to HTTP==
OBEX is similar in design and function to [[HTTP]] in providing the client with a reliable transport for connecting to a server and may then request or provide objects. But OBEX differs in many important respects:

*HTTP is normally layered above a [[TCP/IP]] link. OBEX can also be, but is commonly implemented on an [[IrLAP]]/[[IrLMP]]/[[Tiny TP]] stack on an [[IrDA]] device. In [[Bluetooth]], OBEX is implemented on a [[Baseband]]/[[Bluetooth protocols#ACL .28Asynchronous Connection Less.29 link|ACL]]/[[Bluetooth protocols#L2CAP .28Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol.29|L2CAP]] (and, for legacy uses, [[Bluetooth protocols#RFCOMM .28Radio Frequency Communication.29|RFCOMM]]) stack. Other such "bindings" of OBEX are possible, such as over [[USB]].
*HTTP uses human-readable text, but OBEX uses binary-formatted [[type–length–value]] triplets named "Headers" to exchange information about a request or an object. These are much easier to parse by resource-limited devices.
*HTTP transactions are inherently stateless; generally an HTTP client opens a connection, makes a single request, receives its response, and either closes the connection or [[HTTP persistent connection|makes other unrelated requests]]. In OBEX, a single transport connection may bear many related operations. In fact, recent additions to the OBEX specification allow an abruptly closed transaction to be resumed with all state information intact.