1.5. The Open Services Gateway Initiative
Sun Microsystems is a founding member of the OSGi consortium (http://www.osgi.org), an independent, nonprofit industry group that has defined an open standard for connecting future generations of networked consumer and small business devices to Internet services. The need for standardization is obvious:
Platform independence. Different types of gateway devices usually have their own native platforms and various combinations of processors and operating systems. Such diversity is much more common for the embedded devices than for desktop computers. It would be infeasible for service developers to write applications and port them to many platforms with drastically different underlying characteristics, let alone have them work with one another seamlessly. This problem can be solved by leveraging the “write-once-run-everywhere” value proposition of the Java technology and by agreeing to a common standard for the gateway software.
Vendor independence. An open specification focuses on defining application programming interfaces (APIs), making it possible for residential gateways manufactured by different vendors to host services written by different service providers that are provisioned by different gateway operators. The roles of various participants are discussed in the next section.
Future-Proof. An open standard coupled with the dynamic upgradability of the Java technology means that a residential gateway hardware box has longer utility. It can remain the same while the user changes service providers or adds new services.
Integration. An open standard enables coexistence and integration with multiple LAN and device access technologies, and can provide a software platform that can accommodate existing technologies so that, for example, a Jini™ technology-enabled printer, a HAVi-compatible audiovisual receiver, and a UPnP camera, can all interoperate via the standard platform.
The specifications that the OSGi consortium produces provide a common foundation for Internet service providers (ISPs), network operators, and equipment manufacturers to deliver a wide range of services via gateway servers running in the home or remote office.
The release of Java Embedded Server software version 1.0 predates and in fact catalyzed the formation of the OSGi. The product attracted several software companies, service gateway hardware vendors, and service providers. Sun Microsystems began working with IBM, Ericsson, and others to standardize the API to ensure interoperability of software solutions in the residential gateway market. In March 1999, 15 companies formed the OSGi consortium. The OSGi Java Expert Group was officially established, and one of the coauthors of this book, Li Gong, was elected by the group members and formally appointed by the OSGi Board of Directors as the first Java Expert Group Chair. Sun Microsystems contributed the specifications of Java Embedded Server software version 1.1 (the latest version of the product at the time) to the OSGi, which became the basis and a starting point for the specification work by the Java Expert Group. The group eventually produced the official OSGi Service Gateway Specification version 1.0, which was approved by the OSGi Board of Directors and released at Connections 2000, an event held in San Diego, California, in May 2000. Although it stemmed from the Java Embedded Server product and its ServiceSpace architecture, the OSGi specification has evolved the APIs and other features. As a result, Sun Microsystems has rebuilt the Java Embedded Server product from the ground up and released the OSGi-based version 2.0 of the product in August 2000.
The OSGi has attracted lots of attention and has been growing fast. As of this writing, more than 80 companies, including many notable device manufacturers, software developers, network operators, and service providers, have joined the OSGi.