Question
What is the Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi)?
Answer
The OSGi is a Non-Profit corporation organized in the USA, and supported by 60 companies worldwide, that is defining a set of APIs and providing a sample implementation of a services gateway architecture. This services gateway is inserted between the external network and internal network and devices. The Services Gateway inserts a new value point into home networks that will facilitate the development and deployment of a wide range of advanced network based services. Service providers will be delivering just-in-time value added services to this services gateway and this gateway will provide a service distribution, integration and management point in a SOHO / ROBO (Small Office/Home Office and Remote Office/Branch Office) or residence. The OSGi is targeted towards not only the residential gateway marketplace, but also the SOHO/ROBO market.

A full list of OSGi members is in the About OSGi section of the website.

Question
Why did the initial members decide to get together to do the Open Services Gateway Initiative?
Answer
All of the vendors had a shared vision:

• that the networked home is the next frontier;

• the Internet and new technologies enables new services, value chains and business models and

• we also saw that to make this happen, a common standard endorsed by communications vendors, IT vendors and appliances vendors was necessary.

Question
What is a Services Gateway?
Answer
The Services Gateway (SG) is an embedded server that is inserted into the network to connect the external internet to internal clients. The SG is inserted between the Service Provider's network and the home or SOHO / ROBO LAN and client devices. The SG separates the topology into the external network and the internal network. Services are delivered from trusted Service Providers on the external network and are delivered to the SG or internal clients. The SG is typically a zero-admin system that is secure and functions as a gateway between these internal and external components.

The OSGi specification includes APIs for service cradle-to-grave life cycle management, inter service dependencies, data management, device management, client access, resource management, and security. Using these APIs clients load network based services on demand from the Service Provider and have the SG manage the installation, versioning and configuration of these services.

Question
What services will be delivered using the Services Gateway?
Answer
Examples of services being developed include:

• Energy Management Service to manage the peaks and valleys in energy usage in an office building. Also, this service will provide for automated metering, remote control, and home energy usage optimization. In this scenario the services gateway is providing a coordination point to allow several JINI and other device technologies to interact and be managed from the utilities central office.

• Security Service to remotely monitor and control security services utilizing standard web infrastructure. These security services could be as complex as that used in a large office building or as small as those provided to a home. In this scenario the gateway will be the focal point for connecting the central office security systems to the individual pieces of security equipment on the premise.

• Health Care Service that provide remote monitoring of patient state, metering of medication and emergency alarm services. Here the gateway can maintain a continuous connection to the health care workers at the hospital as well as to mobile health care workers, such as ambulances and doctors. Here the gateway is used to monitor patient health care equipment and notify health care workers of significant activities.

• VPN services to optimize connections to the central office in a secure fashion and to allow for zero administration of SOHO / ROBO clients.

• Home Automation Service to provide a centralized point for automation of home entertainment and utility systems. The gateway will provide an integration and management point to allow JINI and/or HAVi devices to be deployed and managed.

• Intertainment Services that provide pay as you play advanced Internet based entertainment services. This includes prefetching and caching stock / news feeds, on demand audio and video services as well as traditional financial services. Here the gateway manages the connection and billing between the online service provider and the in home delivery equipment.

Question
Who will benefit from the Services Gateway and how?
Answer

• Consumers will benefit by reducing the costs of utility services, such as energy and security. Also, consumers will benefit be having a faster and integrated home LAN. Finally, consumers will benefit by having access to a wider range of advanced network based services.

• Businesses that are end users will benefit for the same reasons as consumers.

• Service providers will benefit because a new value point will be inserted into the home that they can manage and deliver services to that is Operation Systems independent. Service providers will be able to brand and deploy services to an open standard based platform.

• Service developers will benefit from the OSG be having a consistent open standard to the delivery of their vertical services. Service Providers become part of new markets, protect current business, enter new value chains, build customer loyalty through selling multiple Internet based communications services per subscriber under one brand. The real-time, services economy is coming and the Open Services Gateway Initiative is a key market enabler.

• Equipment manufactures that are developing using the JINI or HAVi standards will benefit from the gateways management and integration capabilities, such as bridging to JINI. Finally, The Open Services Gateway Initiative allows product manufacturers to develop products based on open industry standards based on broad participation and inclusiveness rather than closed, proprietary technologies or wait for a fragmented market to take off. Furthermore, by being able to rely on the existing Java infrastructure, new products and services may be offered at a marginal cost rather than having to invent or implement the entire technology chain.

• Network operators benefit from increased traffic volumes in the wired or wireless telecom network, thus leveraging investments already made in his infrastructure. In addition they are able to offer additional value by bringing new services to his existing subscribers. They can also act as the broker of services from a multitude of service providers.

Question
What is being standardized?
Answer
The OSGi is a collection of APIs that define standards that define a services gateway. These APIs define a set of Core and Optional APIs that together define an OSG compliant gateway. Where possible the OSG is leveraging existing Java standards. Where there are standards that apply that are not Java based, the group's work focuses on integrating with these standards.

• The core APIs address service delivery, dependency and life cycle management, resource management, and remote service administration. All of the core APIs are either contributed by a member or developed by the OSG technical working groups.

• The optional set of APIs define mechanisms for exporting resources to an HTTP-based web server, client interaction with the gateway and data management.

Question
What is the OSG Specification process?
Answer
Proposed OSGi specifications are developed by an Expert Group comprised of participants from interested OSGi member companies. After a through review by the expert group, the proposed specification undergoes review by all OSGi members. Ratified proposals then become OSGi specifications.

Question
Who can become part of the Open Services Gateway Initiative process?
Answer
Any company that joins OSGi can review and comment on the OSGi specifications including communications, computer vendors, service providers, network operators and ISPs, consumer electronics vendors. The OSGi Specification and Member Agreement defines the process by which new members who want to actively participate in the Expert Groups can join.

Question
Why does the standard incorporate Java technology?
Answer
Because Java is an open technology that can run on multiple platforms including Services Gateways, consumer electronics equipment, household appliances, communications appliances, computers and more.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to JINI?
Answer
The OSGi specification works with various device access standards and is compatible with and can enhance a JINI environment. An Open Services Gateway can provide gateway connectivity between JINI devices and the service providers and /or enterprise resources. An OSGi implementation can also provide bridging capability between the JINI environment and non-JINI devices, such as HAVi and others. An OSGi compliant system provides an excellent focal point for the deployment and management of JINI services.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to HomeAPI?
Answer

• The Open Services Gateway Initiative was developed with the contributions of multiple companies including Ericsson, IBM, NCI, Nortel, Oracle, Philips, Sun, Alcatel, Motorola, Lucent, Enron, Cable & Wireless, EDF, Sybase and Toshiba and as such was not developed by a single entity.

• The Open Services Gateway Initiative will be maintained as an open standard, just like Internet RFCs and now other Java standards, not controlled by a single entity.

• Being based on Java, it allows developers and service providers to build applications that are platform and vendor independent offering greater choice, greater investment protection, lower risk and overall more flexibility.

• The Open Services Gateway Initiative is focused not only within the home or small office as HomeAPI, but also on delivery of electronic services over public networks, thus it solves a bigger problem. Being based on a three tier computing model (device, gateway, back end) based on open standards all they way, it leverages existing computing infrastructures (including Windows based ones) that scales from a residential alarm system to the worlds largest computing environments running on large scale Unix or MVS server systems.

• The Open Services Gateway Initiative leverages the cooperation and technology of some of the largest companies in the communications and computing world; thus there is a multiplier effect not only from a standards and technology perspective but also from a business perspective.

• The specification is inclusive of Windows platforms such that there is no conflict with current or future investments in Windows.

Question
There are many residential standards and initiatives. How is the Open Services Gateway Initiative unique?
Answer
The Open Services Gateway Initiative is complimentary with most other residential standards or initiatives currently underway. The Open Services Gateway Initiative is focused on the application layer and open to almost any protocol, transport or device layers and thus inclusive rather than exclusive of such. Where there is an existing Java standard, such as JINI, the OSG can use it. Where there is a standard that is not Java based, such as HAVi or Universal Plug and Play, the OSG is focusing on bridging these standards in a consistent fashion.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to HomePNA, X-10, CEBus?
Answer
The OSG device management APIs supports these standards and provides a consistent and standard set of APIs for connecting and accessing these devices based on Java.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to wireless standards such as Bluetooth, HomeRF and technologies like ShareWave?
Answer
The Open Services Gateway Initiative will work with any of these wireless carrier protocols. The OSG device management and resource management APIs supports these standards and provides a consistent and standard set of APIs for connecting and accessing these protocols.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to Microsoft Windows CE?
Answer
The Open Services Gateway Initiative standard can be used together with any version of Windows or any other operating system supporting a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Thus it may be used together with the entire Windows family of operating systems. A true benefit of the Open Services Gateway Initiative is its vendor, platform and operating system independence.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to Microsoft's Universal Plug and Play?
Answer
The Open Services Gateway Initiative can also be integrated with this technology as the Services Gateway standard is an entirely open specification providing its own device API that can be interfaced to Universal Plug and Play enabled devices.

Question
How does the Open Services Gateway Initiative relate to LonWORKS?
Answer
The Open Services Gateway Initiative can also be integrated with this technology as the Services Gateway standard is an entirely open specification providing its own device API that can be interfaced to LonWorks enabled devices.




OSGi - FAQ