Sun Pushes P2P With New Protocol, Verizon Partnership

As part of an effort to push its JXTA technology at JavaOne, Sun Tuesday announced the release of its enhanced JXTA 2.1 P2P protocol, as well as a version of Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME) that conforms to the JXTA 2.0 protocol, said Juan Carlos Soto, group manager of Sun's Advanced Technologies Group. JXTA 2.0 was released last spring.

As reported earlier by CRN, JXTA 2.1 offers expanded metering and monitoring, a new access-control service, JXTA sockets and bidirectional pipes.

Many of the features are aimed at driving more corporate use of the Java collaboration technology, Soto said. The access control service in JXTA 2.1, for example, will enable users to assign access-control rights for one peer, whether a desktop or mobile device, so that it can communicate with another peer.

In addition, JXTA 2.1 will make it easier for developers to write applications and services that can be metered and monitored, sources said.

While the Verizon demonstration will illustrate classic P2P collaboration between PCs on a broadband network, Sun also plans to demonstrate a myriad of collaboration scenarios among wired and wireless devices on the show floor, Soto said.

"The Verizon [implementation of JXTA] will enable their customers to collaborate, interact and exchange data using desktop class machines," said Soto. "But P2P does not mean PC to PC. The vision for Sun is much broader, and collaboration is possible from a sensor to superserver."

Soto said the JXTA 2.1 access-control services improve security and that a future release of JXTA will build upon that by offering enhanced integration with other security mechanisms.

"The access service is an important step in that direction," Soto said. "You'll see enhanced interaction with other security mechanisms out there so you can plug into [the] Liberty [specification] and crypto-based IDS, which give you a unique identifier. This is a service so you can check a certificate and know it's a real message and know it's not someone posing as someone else."

The executive would not comment on reports that Sun is integrating JXTA into N1 or the SunOne software stack. When asked if JXTA would be integrated into Sun's instant messaging server software, Soto was a bit more forthcoming. "It might use JXTA," Soto said. "Stay tuned. We'll tell you when it does."

Project JXTA is an open-source initiative funded by Sun and devoted to developing P2P protocols and a collaboration framework for Java.