Jabber Chats Up Gateway to IBM

Instant messaging software firm Jabber has outlined plans for an
XMPP-to-SIP Gateway that opens the door for interoperability with IBM’s
Lotus IM product.

The Jabber move to connect with Big Blue’s instant messenger comes less
than a week after Microsoft announced it
would open its enterprise-focused Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS 2005)
to chat networks run by rivals America Online and Yahoo
.

It signals increased momentum in the push for full IM interoperability,
especially among enterprise-focused offerings.

Jabber said the XMPP-to-SIP server-to-server Gateway would connect its
Jabber XCP communications platform with IBM’s Lotus IM offering, which uses
the SIMPLE protocol. SIMPLE is a flavor of SIP
, the signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony,
presence, events notification and instant messaging.

Microsoft’s upcoming LCS 2005 utilizes the SIP protocol, which
raises the possibility that Jabber’s XMPP-based platform could connect to
businesses using Redmond’s real-time collaboration offering.

In its announcement, Jabber said the gateway launch will “provide
the basis for additional XMPP-SIP interoperability releases from the company
in the months to come” and is scheduled to ship in the fourth quarter this
year.

XMPP , widely considered a rival protocol to SIMPLE,
provides an XML-based protocol for server-to-server instant messaging and
presence. Earlier this year, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) approved
XMPP as a standard for IM and presence, providing a boost to
Jabber’s XCP, which is based on XMPP.

SIMPLE remains an Internet draft protocol currently in development while
SIP is an IETF protocol that has been endorsed by both IBM and
Microsoft.