First Known Open Source Distribution of Service Discovery Software Free of Charge
HIGHLAND, UT, July 10, 2000—The S alutation Consortium, which provides an open information exchange standard called service discovery for multi-platform handheld computers, will offer its reference model Salutation-Lite code through an open source arrangement.
Now all wireless device developers, and hardware or software manufacturers , member or not, have free access to the code for development and refinement and incorporation into their products. No licensing charges or upfront fees.
It is the first known effort specifically regarding service discovery.
“Open source promotes software reliability and quality by supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code,said Robert Pascoe, president of the Consortium. “Open sourcing breaks the dependence on one or a few suppliers and enables hardware and software developers to generate a solution quickly with the added assurance of currency and compliance.
IBM, a charter member of the Consortium, is solidly behind this open source effort.
“We believe that service discovery is key to self-configuring networks in pervasive computing environments. IBM is a staunch supporter of open standards and supports the open source process,said, Jon Prial, Director of Marketing, Pervasive Computing Division, IBM . “The Salutation- Lite code in particular gives customers a robust service discovery solution today. Service discovery should not be a propriety control point, rather it should be open, consistent, and leveraged in as many devices as possible.”
The architecture is independent of operating system, hardware platform or communications protocol. It is being tested on Window, WindowsCE, and Java platforms. It has been tested on TCP/IP and IrDA protocols with mappings available for SLP and Bluetooth. Other operating systems and protocol ports are planned.
Developers and users may go to www.salutation.org/lite/litesource.htm for direct access information.
The Salutation Architecture
The Salutation-Lite architecture demonstrates a single-service discovery implementation across devices, applications and services. The architecture does this by offering what the Consortium refers to as a “Find and Bind solution for these small-footprint devices. It helps users to locate and detect Salutation-enabled devices, exchange functional capabilities and locate required services. Mobile users can then perform the services they require such as printing, faxing or sending audio messages directly from their handheld device via their infrared port, for example.
About the Salutation Consortium
The Salutation Consortium is a non-profit corporation that promotes and distributes, royalty-free, the Salutation Architecture, a service discovery and session management protocol developed by leading information technology companies. It is an open standard independent of operating system, communications protocol or hardware platform.
Consortium members include America Online, Axis Communications, Canon, Inc., Consumer Electronics Assoc., Continental Automated Buildings Assoc., Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, IBM, Infrared Data Assoc., Konica Corp., Kyocera Mita Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., MicroBurst, Inc., Murata Machinery, Ltd., National Institute of Standards and Technology, Oki Data Corp., Pistachio, Inc., Ricoh Co., Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., Square, TRG Products, Inc., Toshiba TEC Corp., USA Technologies, and WalletWare, Inc.
Academic members include, Tamal Bose, University of Colorado; Stephen Reiss, Brown University; Tomohiro Takagi, Meiji University; Professor Wenching Liou, National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan; Dr. Roger deBry, Utah Valley State College; Golden G. Richard III, University of New Orleans; Kaspar Hellden, Link ping University in Sweden; and Heath Westover, University of Washington.