Tokyo, November 28, 2007 - NEC Corporation announced the successful development of an "NGN Web Application Platform" that enables next-generation networks (NGN) to easily accommodate existing web applications.

Through this new technology, NGN-compatible protocols will no longer need to be installed in web servers and clients when using current web applications on NGN. As existing web browsers and web servers can be used as they are, it will be possible to make a smooth transition from existing web applications to high-quality services that take advantage of NGNs, such as line authentication and QoS 1.

The newly developed "NGN Web Application Platform" automatically sets up communication between web servers and clients on NGN. This is achieved by a proxy technology to relay access from existing clients to web servers, and a repository technology to resolve server addresses that manage SIP2 sessions required to access web servers.

In recent years, activities for realizing services on NGN have been expanding at a rapid pace, and field tests are being undertaken in preparation for market deployment. There are high expectations for NGN as a next-generation communication infrastructure that will provide high-quality services based on features such as QoS, advanced security, and high reliability. In order to use the advanced functions of NGN, however, it is necessary to incorporate the communication protocol used in existing web systems (HTTP) in combination with communication protocols for setting up communication routes (SIP). Therefore, SIP has to be installed in web servers and clients.

This platform acts as an "agent" for SIP-related processing, thereby making it possible to use the existing web servers and clients on NGN without installing SIP. The platform's main features are as follows: (1) A proxy technology to automatically establish SIP sessions in keeping with HTTP access requests from clients, enabling HTTP communications after setting up communication routes on NGN, and achieving efficient collaborations between SIP sessions and HTTP sessions. (2) A repository technology to resolve addresses of SIP session management servers3 responsible for setting up communication routes to individual web servers. The repository server looks up the SIP management server address (SIP URI) from the web server address (HTTP URI4) and provides the proxy server with information necessary to fully automate the set up process.

NEC believes that the development of this "NGN Web Application Platform" will accelerate the creation of NGN solutions, and plans to actively pursue research and development to incorporate this platform into its NGN-related IT products in the future.

NEC will display the new technology at iEXPO 2007, NEC's own independent exhibition, which will be held at Tokyo Big Sight from December 5 to 7.

Notes
(1) QoS: Quality of Service
Conventional IP networks offered only "best effort" services that did not guarantee communication quality. NGN, however, guarantees communication speed and quality in keeping with a previously defined quality level.
(2) SIP:
Session Initiation Protocol is a protocol for establishing sessions between clients and servers. It is also used to establish communication routes on NGN.
(3) These can be constructed using NEC products such as "WebOTX" or the "NC7000 Series." The upcoming exhibit will use the corporate application server "WebOTX."
(4) URI:
Uniform Resource Identifier is a character string that uniformly identifies resources on a network.