Features of Sun GlassFish Communications Server

While Communications Server supports all the features available in Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server, it has a host of new features as listed here. For the list of features in Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server, see the Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server Release Notes.

• Compliant with JSR 289 — Communications Server contains a SIP stack that is compliant with RFCs 3261, 3262, 3265, 3311, 3515, 3903, etc. It will also expose the SIP Servlets Java APIs defined by JSR 289.

• Converged SIP and HTTP Sessions — Communications Server supports converged HTTP and SIP session functionality as defined by JSR 289.

• Integrated SIP Servlet Container — The SIP Servlet container offers the following functionality:

  • Provides a network end point to listen to SIP requests,

  • Provides an environment to host and manage the lifecycle of SIP Servlets.

  The SIP Servlet container works in conjunction with the web container to provide support for converged applications as defined by the SIP Servlet API Specification ( SSA).

• Easy Administration — Communications Server enables easy administration of the SIP container and the deployed SIP applications using the CLI and the GUI.

• Security— Digest Authentication is supported for both HTTP and SIP protocols. P-Asserted-Identity is supported for SIP protocol. The SIP Container supports SIPS over TLS.

• Converged Load Balancer — Converged Load Balancer (CLB) is a software load balancing component, which facilitates high availability of converged applications, by distributing the application requests in a cluster of server instances. The CLB provides the following functionality:

  • Forwards SIP(S) and HTTP(S) requests to a cluster of server instances.

  • Load balances requests using consistent hashing/round-robin policy.

  • Enables and disables server instances in a cluster.

  • Monitors health of server instances.

• Support to Deploy SIP and Converged Applications — Communications Server supports deployment of pure SIP applications and converged applications using the extension-module mechanism in GlassFish. It also supports sun-sip.xml as the Sun-specific deployment descriptor for SIP applications.

• NetBeans Tooling — Communications Server provides support for SIP Servlet applications based on JSR 289 on top of NetBeans 6.0. A simple SIP client can be created using the test agent to test SIP Servlets. This plug-in is available under as-install-dir/lib/tools.

• Application Router Deployment — Communications Server supports hot deployment of Application router archives (JAR files) using the extension module mechanism. An application router that follows a simple alphabetical rule for routing the requests is provided by default.

• Packaging and File Layout — Communications Server is being delivered as a file-based installable.

• Registration with Sun Connection — You can use the installer, the Admin Console GUI, or the Update Center to register the product with Sun Connection. By registering the Communications Server with Sun Connection you receive benefits such as:

  • Patch information and bug updates

  • Screencasts and tutorials

  • News and events

  • Support and training offerings

• SuSe Linux 64–bit support

• Multilevel relationship prefetching support— Multilevel relationship prefetching for container-managed persistence (CMP) 2.1 entity beans is now supported. For more information, see Enabling Multilevel Relationship Prefetching.

• Enhanced JBI support — You can update a JBI component through the Admin Console GUI or from the command line without the need to redeploy any service assemblies that are already deployed.

• Java EE 5 platform support — Sun GlassFish Communications Server implements the Java EE 5 specification to deliver one of the best application runtimes for next-generation enterprise applications and web services. Communications Server implements the following Java EE standards:

  • Enterprise Java Beans 3.0

  • JAXB 2.0

  • Java Persistence

  • Java Server Faces 1.2

  • Java Server Pages 2.1 (JSP 2.1)

  • Java Server Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) 1.2

  • Streaming API for XML (StAX)

  • Web Services Metadata

  • Java API for XML based Web Services 2.0 (JAX-WS 2.0)

  • Common Annotations for the Java Platform 1.0 (CAJ 1.0)

  • Java Servlet 2.5

  The complete list of Java EE 5 platform technologies is provided later in these notes.

• Web Services Interoperability Technologies (WSIT) support – Sun is working closely with Microsoft to ensure interoperability of Web services enterprise technologies such as message optimization, reliable messaging, and security. The initial release of WSIT is a product of this joint effort. WSIT is an implementation of a number of open web services specifications to support enterprise features. In addition to message optimization, reliable messaging, and security, WSIT includes a bootstrapping and configuration technology. Starting with the core XML support currently built into the Java platform, WSIT uses or extends existing features and adds new support for interoperable web services, including:

  • Bootstrapping and Configuration

  • Message Optimization Technology

  • Reliable Messaging Technology

  • Security Technology

  See More About WSIT Integration later in this chapter for more information about WSIT integration in Communications Server.

• JBI support – JBI extends Java EE with business integration Service Provider Interfaces (SPI). These SPI enable developers to create or implement a Java business integration environment for specifications such as WSCI, BPEL4WS and the W3C Choreography Working Group. A JBI implementation is installed directly by the Communications Server installer, mostly in the as-install/jbi directory. This directory contains all common JAR files and system components for the JBI including a lifecycle module that starts the JBI framework in the Communications Server JVM.

• Usage profiles – Every administrative domain is associated with a usage profile, which identifies the capabilities of that domain. Communications Server provides the following profiles:

  • Developer – Use this profile if you are running your domain in a development environment and if your applications do not need clustering features, such as load balancing, high availability, and session replication. Note that the actual name of the profile is “developer” (case sensitive).

  • Cluster – Use this profile if you want to create clusters of application server instances imparting scalability and high availability to the deployed Java EE applications. The state of the applications is persisted in-memory. Note that the actual name of the profile is “cluster” (case sensitive).

• Open Source and SailFin Community — TheSailFin community has the goal of developing a free, open source, commerical-grade communcations server that implements the newest features of the Java EE 5 platform and related enterprise technologies.

• Update Center Support – The Communications Server Update Center provides automated Communications Server updates and easy access to additional components.