Why can we use listen directive on http context?

[Aryanto Rachmad]

Hello Everybody,

I have been using lighttpd for about 4 years, and now I would like to 
explore the capability of nginx. It does not mean that I don't like 
lighttpd any more though :)

As I mentioned on the subject, why can we use listen directive on http 
context?

If we have multiple virtual hosts on a single physical server and we 
would like to bind nginx to a single IP address, it seems to me that we 
have to put multiple listen directive on every server contexts. Is there 
any relation to the fact that nginx can only limit the transmission rate 
per connection, instead of IP link?

I am confused because we can set the limit_rate within http context, why 
can we do that to the listen directive?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Anto