MEMBERS OF THE PARLAY GROUP AND JAIN COMMUNITY JOIN FORCES TO DEFINE THE JAVA TECHNOLOGY-BASED SPECIFICATION FOR PARLAY AND A UNIFIED CALL MODELMEMBERS OF THE PARLAY GROUP AND JAIN COMMUNITY JOIN FORCES TO DEFINE THE JAVA TECHNOLOGY-BASED SPECIFICATION FOR PARLAY AND A UNIFIED CALL MODELATLANTA, GA -- June 6, 2000 -- A new JAIN application programming interface (API) specifically designed for the Parlay 2.1 specification, called JAIN SPA (Service Provider API), debuted today at Supercomm 2000, and is now available for review by participants in the Java Community Process program. Marrying the efforts of the JAIN Community and The Parlay Group is a significant step in gaining acceptance of the Parlay API specification in the Java technology marketplace, and for the JAIN initiative to increase its reach by addressing the external service provider (SP) space. JAIN SPA 2.1 is the Java technology-based specification of the Parlay API Version 2.1 interface. The API is intended to allow software developers to rapidly develop external service provider applications using a high level API that hides the heterogeneity of underlying networks. The objectives of the JAIN community and The Parlay Group are highly complementary and this has promoted a significant common membership across the two initiatives. Close cooperation between members has resulted in an alignment proposal that provides one single interface for call processing across many domainsfrom call centers to call processing in the network to external SPs running services outside the network. Working closely with members of The Parlay Group and the JTAPI community, the JAIN community has specified a new JAIN API--the JAIN Call Control API 1.0--as the standard Java technology interface for developers and telecom vendors to use in creating Next Generation Network services (see related release, "JAINCall Control API Enables Application Portability Across Heterogeneous Networks"). Ayse Dilber, AT&T Labs, and the vice president of Parlay, said, "Parlay is an umbrella architecture which provides network independence and application portability. The Parlay APIs will enable a new generation of off-the-shelf network applications/components (e.g. messaging, mobility, end-to-end quality of service, etc.) to be developed by application providers (ISVs/ASPs) independent of the underlying voice/multimedia network. The Parlay Group, working together with the JAIN initiative, will direct the industry to design and develop new services and allow those services to actually drive the IT networks." "The goal of the JAIN initiative is to leverage the Java platform and existing telecom standards in order to enable faster and easier development of cross-platform telecom services," said Ann Wettersten, vice president of business development and planning for Sun's Network Service Provider division. "We are delighted about the results of the alignment between the Parlay group and the JAIN community, which thus far has produced two valuable new specifications for the telecom industry, the JAIN Call Control API 1.0 and the JAIN SPA API 2.1." Jonathan Legh-Smith, Manager, Multimedia Technology for British Telecommunications plc. and Technical Lead in JAIN, said, "The JAIN specification is an important milestone in making open Network APIs accessible to the IT community at large. This Java technology-based version of the Parlay API has been designed to be intuitive to Java technology application developers, an attribute that BT regards as essential to stimulating the market for network-based applications. The technical alignment with the JCC API specification is also a critical factor as it will enable telecoms suppliers to offer a coherent set of Java technology-based products to network operators." About The Parlay GroupThe Parlay Group's objective is to promote industry acceptance of the Parlay API, a specification designed to enable carriers and independent software vendors to write applications to provide services across wireless, Internet, and wireline networks. Faster time-to-market and less complex development cycles are some of the key benefits of the Parlay API. Founded in 1998, the Parlay Group focused initial development of its API on functions such as call control, messaging, and security. The current Parlay Specification paves the way forward in developing usable, real-world product implementations of the API. The current members of the Parlay Group are AT&T, BT, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Siemens AG and Ulticom. The specification has been published at http://www.parlay.org. About the JAIN Technology InitiativeOrganized by Sun in 1998, the JAIN initiative addresses the needs of next-generation telecom networks by developing a set of industry-defined APIs for Integrated Networks. Network services today are typically built using proprietary interfaces that inhibit the marketplace for new services. Members of the JAIN community have joined forces to define open APIs based on Sun's Java platform, thus allowing service providers to rapidly create and deploy new flexible, revenue-generating services. Information about the JAIN program can be found at http://java.sun.com/products/jain/. The development of JAIN specifications is spearheaded simultaneously in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. To date, more than 55 of the communication industry's leading hardware providers, network equipment providers, protocol providers and service providers have joined the JAIN initiative. The newest members include Alcatel, BroadSoft, Cisco Systems, Huawei Technology, Incomit, Lara Networks, Lucent Technologies, Natural Systems, NTT Labs, Siemens ICN, Sylantro, teleSys Software, U|Force, Westwave Communications, and Xybridge. A complete list of participants can be found at http://java.sun.com/products/jain/. The JAIN community also corroborates with other broad-based industry groups like the Parlay Workgroup, the International Softswitch Consortium, and 3GPP to provide quality industry supported community extensions for the Java platform. About the Java Community Process ProgramThe Java Community Process program is the formalization of the community-based process for developing Java technology specifications, reference implementations and associated compatability test suites that Sun has been using since 1995. To date, 70 Java technology specifications have been initiated through the JCP, and over 240 companies and individuals have signed up as participants. About Sun Microsystems, Inc.Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - The Network Is The Computer - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to dot-com their businesses. With $14.2 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
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