Reusing Sessions
Client applications usually make many connections to the same server. For example, standard Web browsers might connect to a server to download the main Web page, and then connect several times simultaneously to download the images on the page. For each connection, the SSL/TLS protocol requires that the client and server execute the SSL Handshake protocol, which includes exchanging keys and certificates, and generating session keys.
If your application needs many SSL/TLS connections to the same server within a short time, the SSL/TLS protocol allows you to reuse a previous SSL/TLS session. A session is defined by connection parameters, including protocols and keys.
To attempt to reuse a session:
The server can refuse to reuse the session if:
the session is too old
the server’s session cache filled up quickly and the session was removed
If your session cannot be reused, the protocol automatically renegotiates a new session without any intervention from your application. For more information, see the example in examples\secsock\manual\SessionReuseExample.cpp.