Oracle Buys Non-SIP Servlet Compliant, JBoss-based Hotsip
Ken Lee's Blog |
February 15, 2006 11:02 PM
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Comments (13)
With it's acquisition of Hotsip A.B., Oracle Fusion Middleware has now added a SIP application server to it's ever-expanding product portfolio. Certainly BEA is not alone in extending a welcome to Oracle into the ever-growing SIP application server vendor community, which will likely see additional Java EE vendors joining in 2006. This is encouraging, since it validates the market for converged Java EE-SIP application servers, for which BEA WebLogic SIP Server was the first to market, with live commercial deployments.
As this community continues to grow, it becomes even more important for telecom network operators, as well as enterprise customers, to be able to expect a Java community standard for developing, deploying and managing converged HTTP-SIP applications. Currently, the Java community standard for developing and deploying SIP applications is the SIP Servlet API, specified in JSR 116. And the next iteration of this standard is being led by BEA as JSR 289. The SIP Servlet standard is especially important for the Java developer community looking to develop new applications to enable next-generation communication services.
So it is interesting that Oracle has acquired a non-SIP Servlet compliant SIP application server in Hotsip. Hotsip has implemented a version of the SIP servlet specification which is not compliant to JSR 116, and which they call SIP Handlet APIs. This means that the future Oracle SIP application server will require developers, partners, and service providers to create non-standards based applications which can only work with Oracle's platform. For service providers, this means the need to foster and sustain a separate SIP Handlet developer community which can only be used with the Oracle SIP platform.
Another interesting aspect of Oracle's Hotsip acquisition is their underlying Java EE platform, JBoss Application Server. Instead of creating a SIP servlet container integrated with the Oracle Application Server OC4J container, Oracle has opted for an open-source Java EE platform as their SIP application server. Given that telecom network operators have not adopted open-source software to run their business-critical telecom network and services layers, it's very unclear what level of traction JBoss will see in the telecom network.
As the telecom network operators look to implement next-generation IP network infrastructures based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture, they are increasingly looking for a standards-based services layer infrastructure to layer above their IMS network layers. And when it comes to SIP-based IMS service infrastructure, operators are looking towards commercial-grade Java EE platforms which implement the SIP Servlet APIs and programming model, such as BEA WebLogic SIP Server.
It remains to be seen whether operators will decide to put signficant investmenst into non-standards based SIP programming models, such as SIP Handlets, and non-carrier grade, open-source Java EE platforms such as JBoss Application Server, to form the foundation of their strategic deployments of IMS-based next-generation networks.
Comments
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Hi Ken
I could be wrong, but it seems BEA's WLCP is the only standars-based, carrier-grade Java EE platform out there?
thx
Posted by: agnesmuylle on February 16, 2006 at 10:16 AM
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From Hotsip.com's page, they claim they support JSR-116 as of Sep 27, 2005.
Posted by: shengs75 on February 16, 2006 at 3:17 PM
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Hotsip supports their own implementation called SIP Handlet APIs, and not SIP Servlet APIs. SIP Handlets may be based on JSR 116, but is not equal to supporting JSR 116. JCP is pretty clear on what constitutes JSR compliance.
BEA WebLogic Communications Platform is a product family, consisting of the BEA WebLogic SIP Server and BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper, and is the industry's first and only next-gen service convergence platform which brings together Java EE, SIP, IMS and Telecom Web Services in a single product suite.
Posted by: jusmagk on February 16, 2006 at 3:42 PM
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From Hotsip's M2CE product page, sixth bullet down on the left, they claim "JSR116 Compliant". Ken, are you saying that this is factually incorrect?
Posted by: hepwori on February 17, 2006 at 9:48 AM
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agnesmuylle - There are certainly other standards-based, carrier grade platforms out there, and have been for many years. Bat Packets, Ubiquity Software, IBM and Appium to name a few.
Posted by: mxdarby on February 17, 2006 at 12:28 PM
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I think what differentiates WebLogic SIP Server from other is that the web container and the SIP container will be converged. So, you can make direct calls and obtain session info from one or the other. This will be the key feature in the next release of the product I believe. Is this a correct statement, Ken?
Hotsip is JBoss based, so either way, Oracle will have to persuade the Telcos to use an open source product will little or no support. Unless Oracle buys JBoss Group, I doubt that there will be any in-house JBoss experts at Oracle. Good luck on that one.
Posted by: shengs75 on February 17, 2006 at 2:45 PM
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It seems to me that JSR 116 is SIP Servlet APIs, and not SIP Handlet APIs. It's probably best for Oracle to confirm whether they have, or have not, passed the JSR 116 TCK for technical compliance. I have not seen SIP Servlet API support listed in publicly available M2CE product material. From a Java community perspective, I hope M2CE is fully JSR 116 compliant with SIP Servlet API and container implementations.
In terms of other standards-based products, BEA WebLogic Communications Platform continues to be the only product suite that brings together Java EE, SIP Servlet, IMS and Telecom Web Services. There are products which support some of these, but none of them support all of them in a single platform. The benefit to network operators, and developers, is very clear.
BEA WebLogic SIP Server provides a converged Java EE-SIP Servlet container today, and not in a future release, and commercial-grade Java EE platforms running converged HTTP-SIP Servlets is something network operators and service providers are adopting in live commercial deployments globally. Open-source middleware in the telecom network service layer, running CPL or SIP Handlets, is not a model that is gaining market adoption for carrier-grade IMS or SIP service deployments. If M2CE does support SIP Servlets, requiring operators to run that on an open-source, non-carrier-grade Java EE platform will continue to be problematic.
Posted by: jusmagk on February 17, 2006 at 4:03 PM
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"Java EE platforms running converged HTTP-SIP Servlets is something network operators and service providers are adopting in live commercial deployments"
Ken, can you tell us how many network operators around the world are carrying live SIP traffic on the WLSS today?
Posted by: angesmuylle on February 18, 2006 at 10:42 AM
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BEA continues to make public customers using the BEA WebLogic Communications Platform products, which include BEA WebLogic SIP Server and BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper. We recently announced O2 in the UK as a BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper customer, applying the product's policy-based network access control and partner relationship management capabilities to more effectively manage their O2 Active i-mode mobile content delivery service. We will do likewise, over time, with those customers willing to make public their live commercial services powered by BEA WebLogic SIP Server.
- Ken
Posted by: jusmagk on February 20, 2006 at 7:11 PM
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BEA WebLogic Communications Platform continues to be the only product suite that brings together Java EE, SIP Servlet, IMS and Telecom Web Services
Ken, can you give more detail on the "Telecom Web Services" you refer to? Do BEA provide an implementation of ParlayX or similar?
Posted by: angesmuylle on February 22, 2006 at 3:58 PM
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BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper provides Telecom Web Services interfaces on it's northbound application interface, based on Parlay X Web Services 1.0. You can find more details at http://bea.com/gatekeeper. BEA WebLogic Network Gatekeeper delivers the Telecom Web Services and Policy Enforcement capabilities to the BEA WebLogic Communications Platform product suite.
Posted by: jusmagk on February 22, 2006 at 8:57 PM
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I think what differentiates WebLogic SIP Server from other is that the web container and the SIP container will be converged.
Although this does differentiate the product, competing products can claim features that uniquely differentiate them. The interesting question is whether a converged container is desirable. Dynamicsoft was the first company to merge a web container and SIP Servlet container, with very mixed results. The Java community has acknowledged the problems of fusing web and realtime communication technologies and produced the JAIN SLEE standard as a result.
Posted by: mxdarby on February 24, 2006 at 6:49 PM
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It's definitely ideal to provide an HTTP, SIP converged container althought tight J2EE integration is not always liked by everybody.
Micromethod Technologies (www.micromethod.com) is another vendor provides fully converged, JSR-116 compliant SIP Application Server as well toolkits for SIP based real-time collaboration.
Posted by: lu_kevin@yahoo.com on March 22, 2006 at 10:47 PM
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