IBM Lakesa
An Architecture for Collaborative Networking
Executive Overview



In 1991, IBM heralded a new era in personal 
communications with the release of Person to 
Person/2a desktop conferencing software. 
Allowing OS/2a-based computers throughout the 
enterprise and the world to link and provide a 
shared workspace, Person to Person/2 allowed 
simple telephone conversations to go a step 
further into interactive meetings. Now available 
for both OS/2 and DOS/Windows environments, 
Person to Person offers the software designer the 
perfect way to link applications for the exchange 
of real-time information streams through the IBM 
Lakes Architecture for Collaborative 
Networking. IBM Lakes is a multimedia-capable, 
real-time networking architecture which can be 
implemented on a variety of hardware platforms 
and operating systems environments.
Many vendors have entered the desktop 
conferencing market over the past three years, 
which confirms IBMs vision of the next 
generation of interpersonal computing via real-
time communications technology.  However, 
there has been a proliferation of proprietary 
conferencing products which cannot interoperate, 
as well as an intense focus on relatively 
expensive and technically complex desktop 
videoconferencing product development.  These 
actions have in turn led to a market which, while 
garnering wide coverage in the trade press, has 
not really delivered on the promise of improved 
productivity for commercial enterprises, 
educational institutions, or government entities. 
Much of the challenge to market success is due to 
the lack of standard interfaces in the 
collaborative working arena. Its like buying a 
fax machine and then discovering that one can 
only exchange faxes with another person who has 
the same make and model of fax machine. The 
machine might indeed be useful for a particular 
purpose, but would be rather limited in day-to-
day business, where communications occurs 
between many parties and can rarely be planned 
very far in advance.
To promote interoperation of conferencing 
products, IBM has been actively working on the 
next generation of Person to Person software 
technology and developing the Lakes 
Architecture for Collaborative Networking, while 
encouraging and embracing the adoption of 
standards for desktop conferencing and 
collaborative working. IBM has documented and 
made public the Lakes Architecture in IBM 
Lakes:  An Architecture for Collaborative 
Networking, available from booksellers 
(ISBN 0-902979-13-2).  

In contrast with other single-platform 
specifications, IBM Lakes is a comprehensive, 
real-time collaborative networking architecture 
which is completely independent of hardware 
platforms and operating systems environments. It 
has been designed by one of IBMs leading 
network software laboratories - the Hursley Park 
laboratory in Hursley, England - producer of the 
widely used Customer Information Control 
Systema (CICS).

IBM Lakes provides standard interfaces for 
applications, network management and hardware 
access, while accommodating the existing H.320 
standards profile and the forthcoming T.120 data 
conferencing standards profile. Collaborative 
features can be added to any application through 
programming interfaces in most popular 
programming languages - including C, C++, 
Pascal and Visual Basic. 

The IBM Lakes Software Developers Toolkit - 
available now in Beta - includes extensive 
examples of applications, utilities and even 
games. Much source-code is supplied and may be 
re-used in other applications.


IBM Lakes: A Flexible Architecture for Collaborative Applications



The IBM Lakes Architecture is wide-reaching in 
both its scope and its breadth of function. Lakes 
provides comprehensive networking support for 
real-time conferencing and collaborative 
applications. Lakes includes robust facilities for 
the serialization and synchronization of 
multimedia data streams from different 
applications, between multiple users, across 
arbitrary networks.

Lakes provides a consistent, high-level 
application programming interface which enables 
software developers to build real-time 
collaborative applications. Lakes shields 
application developers from network protocols, 
call management, and hardware specifications, 
enabling them to concentrate on what they do 
best - delivering application function to 
customers. 

Lakes is open and accessible to all application 
software vendors, systems integrators, and 
system manufacturers, and is intended to unify 
todays disparate conferencing environment.

Key features of the IBM Lakes Architecture 
include:
  Synchronization and Serialization of 
related multimedia data streams (audio, 
video, and application data), thus preserving 
the inherent meaning of the related data 
streams.
 For example, when a user states that they are 
pointing to a particular place in a document, 
all the information - their voice, their motion 
video, and the remote pointer movements - is 
delivered to remote users with the spatial 
(time) relationships intact. 
  A high-level Application Programming 
Interface (API) which effectively shields 
application developers from having to know 
about or deal with network protocols, the 
details of packet data transmission, error 
recovery, and call set-up and maintenance.
  A modular architecture which isolates 
functions in different parts of the system, 
allowing ALL supported types of information 
to be interchanged across ANY supported 
network type transparently.  For example, 
this means that ISDN is not required to 
exchange video, as in many competitive 
systems. Video can be transmitted over any 
supported LAN or WAN connection type.
  Support for multiple systems platforms to 
interoperate.  Currently, the industry-leading 
OS/2a and DOS/Windowsa platforms are 
supported by Person to Person, with IBM 
AIXa and Applea System 7 planned.
  Support for most leading network 
protocols and networks, including TCP/IP, 
Novella SPX/IPX, NetBIOS, and SNA 
APPC/APPN across Token-Ring, Etherneta, 
or FDDI LANS (including frame-relay); 
ISDN Basic Rate Interface links; and 
asynchronous AT modems of many types.
  Multi-party conferencing support is 
integrated into the basic design of Lakes, 
allowing multiple-party conferences to be 
easily established over existing networks 
without the need for expensive 
communications servers or multipoint control 
units (MCUs).
  A set of easy-to-use utilities for end users: 
whiteboarding, file transfer, text messaging 
and meeting minute-taking, clipboard data 
sharing, and optional video support - both 
stills capture and full-motion video sharing.

For more information about the IBM Lakes 
Architecture or IBM Person to Person 
desktop conferencing software, contact:
	
IBM Conferencing Products
Dept. C85, H05-G1
4111 Northside Parkway
Atlanta, GA 30327-0001
FAX +1 404 238 3751

IBM Conferencing Products
IBM UK Laboratories Ltd. 
MP 104  Hursley Park 
Winchester
Hants SO21 2JN    UK
FAX +44 962 818344
Media Contact:	Mr. Glenn Rossman
	+1 914 766 1711

