This is an implementation of "simple" directional payment channels between two parties, without the concept of hubs (as in the original LN) or p2p routing (as we have in LN today), and which expire at at a pre-determined timestamp (forcing you to close & re-open the channel every once in awhile).

This is useful for cases where one party wants to send payments in small increments to another party (e.g. pay-per-kilobyte for internet access). Funds locked up in the channel are only usable for transacting between the two parties, and funds can only be sent in one direction.

BitcoinJ implemented this nearly two years ago: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=945401.0

And BitPay released this as part of BitCore around 1.5 years ago: https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore-channel

The innovation in payments channels being discussed nowadays is something completely different: bi-directional payment channels that can be kept open indefinitely, with a peer-to-peer routing layer that makes it possible to send off-chain payments to anyone in the network and not just to one specific party.