OSGi applications can share a large number of common utility bundles. To simplify maintenance, an application does not need to include its own copy of each utility bundle. Instead, bundles can be hosted in a bundle repository, from where they are retrieved during deployment. You can administer bundles held in the internal bundle repository of the product, and also add links to external bundle repositories.
WebSphere® Application Server includes an internal bundle repository, in which you can store the bundles and composite bundles for your OSGi applications. The external bundle repositories are bundle repositories that are available outside of WebSphere Application Server. If your OSGi applications reference bundles that are stored in an external bundle repository, you must configure a link (name and URL) to the repository so that the provisioner can retrieve the bundles when required. When an OSGi application is imported as an asset, the provisioner attempts to satisfy all its dependencies by using the contents of the asset, the contents of the internal bundle repository, and the contents of any available external bundle repositories.
You can link to any external bundle repository that complies with the OSGi Alliance RFC-0112 Bundle Repository Draft Specification. Such a repository consists of a website with a bundle repository XML file that describes an OSGi-compliant repository.
You cannot use an external bundle repository to provision services. If you want to provision services that are exported by a bundle, you must store that bundle in the internal bundle repository.