MINA is a simple yet full-featured network application framework which provides:

* Unified API for various transport types:
      o TCP/IP & UDP/IP via Java NIO
      o Serial communication (RS232) via RXTX
      o In-VM pipe communication
      o You can implement your own!
* Filter interface as an extension point; similar to Servlet filters
* Low-level and high-level API:
      o Low-level: uses ByteBuffers
      o High-level: uses user-defined message objects and codecs
* Highly customizable thread model:
      o Single thread
      o One thread pool
      o More than one thread pools (i.e. SEDA)
* Out-of-the-box SSL · TLS · StartTLS support using Java 5 SSLEngine
* Overload shielding & traffic throttling
* Unit testability using mock objects
* JMX managability
* Stream-based I/O support via StreamIoHandler
* Integration with well known containers such as PicoContainer and Spring
* Smooth migration from Netty, an ancestor of Apache MINA.