Overview

OSGi was founded in March, 1999, with the objective of providing a forum for the development of open specifications for the delivery of multiple services over wide-area networks to local networks and devices, and accelerating the demand for products and services based on those specifications worldwide through the sponsorship of market and user education programs.

Fifteen companies were the original founders and there are currently more than sixty companies who have committed to support the full incorporation and charter of the organization.

OSGi was incorporated as a Non-profit corporation in May 1999 and has since completed the preparation of By-laws and Membership agreements, elected initial Directors and Officers, established expert groups to work on the initial specifications, and engaged resources to support the organization's operational and marketing programs.

In detail

The technology implications
The new business models and value chains has very real technologic requirements.

The Open Services Gateway specification is a Java based application layer framework that gives service providers, network operators, device makers, and appliance manufacturers vendor neutral application and device layer APIs and functions.

This strategy enables virtually all emerging home networking platforms, protocols and services to seamlessly inter operate with back end services, using existing residential telephone, cable TV, or electrical wiring. Below are the key characteristics for the Open Services Gateway Specification:

• The technology needs to be platform independent so that it can be implemented on a variety of computing, communications, consumer electronic and household products and platforms.

• The technology needs to be a standard so that both vendors and service providers can have a standard platform to work from and secondly no single company controls the entire architecture and functionality.

• The technology needs to feature very advanced security and integrity technology as multiple service providers and network operators might manage different objects or attributes in the Open Services Gateway device or inside the facility it connects.

• The technology must not put absolute or specific requirements on downstream (in house) network technologies, services or protocols. Any vendor must be free to use whatever technology applicable to their market.

• The management and operations of a network consisting of potentially millions of subscribers makes salability and manageability a very major concern.

• Reliability. The Services Gateway must be available at all times and not prone to crashes caused even by malicious applications.

Open Services Gateway Initiative Technology Because the Open Services Gateway specification focuses exclusively on providing an open application layer and gateway interface for Services Gateways,it complements and enhances virtually all current residential networking standards and initiatives. Some of these include JINI, Bluetooth, CAL, CEBus, HAVi, Home API, HomePNA, HomePnP, HomeRF, and VESA.

The Open Services Gateway specification also preserves consumer investments in future smart home devices. For example, today, when a consumer switches from one home security provider to another, the entire internal network has to be replaced. By choosing devices compatible with the Open Services Gateway specification, consumers can switch between various vendor offerings, without having to replace virtually any of the networking infrastructure.

• The OSGi is a collection of APIs that define standards that define a service 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, such as JINI and JDBC. Where there are standards that apply that are not Java based the groups work focuses on integrating with these standards.

• The core APIs address service delivery, dependency and life cycle management, resource management, remote service administration, and device management. 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 client interaction with the gateway and data management. In addition, several existing Java APIs are included in the optional services. This includes JINI and several other Java standards. A vendor implementing the OSG specifications is not required to implement all of the optional APIs, but there implementation will certified as such. In addition, if a vendor is implementing the capability defined by an optional standard they are required to be use the optional standard to implement that capability.

The Open Services Gateway Initiative will deliver a specification that is an open standard based on Java technology. The specification process is also open to members and based on those developed by other, similar organizations that enjoy a wide range of industry support.

The end results are that anybody can participate in the standards and technology development process.




OSGi - Open Service Gateway Initiative