In case your Java Plugin supports JNLP, the applet-gears.jnlp is used, otherwise it shall fallback to NApplets.

Note that it is important for the startup time to have the same JVM arguments in the applet tags, as well as within the JNLP applet description.
Only if JVM arguments of the JNLP applet description are satisfied by the applet tag's JVM,
the plugin will not need to start a new JVM. OF course, the applet tag's JVM spec may exceed the JNLP applet's one.

The applet above is instantiated with the following code:

<object classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
      width="600" height="400">
   <param name="code" value="demos.applets.GearsApplet">
   <param name="archive" value="../jar/gluegen-rt.jar,
                                ../jar/jogl-all.jar,
                                jar/jogl-demos.jar">
   <param name="jnlp_href" value="applet-gears.jnlp">
   <comment>
     <embed code="demos.applets.GearsApplet"
          width="600" height="400"
          type="application/x-java-applet;version=1.6"
          pluginspage="http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/ea.jsp"
          archive="../jar/gluegen-rt.jar,
                   ../jar/jogl-all.jar,
                   jar/jogl-demos.jar"
          jnlp_href="applet-gears.jnlp">
        <noembed>Sorry, no Java support detected.</noembed>
     </embed>
   </comment>
</object>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<jnlp href="applet-gears.jnlp">
  <information>
    <title>JOGL JNLP Applet Gears Demo</title>
    <vendor>JogAmp Community</vendor>
    <homepage href="http://jogamp.org/jogl-demos/"/>
    <description>Gears Demo </description>
    <description kind="short">Brian Paul's Gears demo ported to Java and JOGL.</description>
    <offline-allowed/>
  </information>
  <update check="background" policy="always"/>

    <resources>
      <j2se href="http://java.sun.com/products/autodl/j2se" version="1.4+"/>
      <jar href="jar/jogl-demos.jar" main="true"/>
      <jar href="jar/jogl-demos-util.jar"/>
      <extension name="jogl-all-awt" href="../jogl-all-awt.jnlp" />
    </resources>

  <applet-desc 
      name="Gears-Applet"
      main-class="demos.applets.GearsApplet"
      width="640" 
      height="480">
  </applet-desc>
</jnlp>

Note that the jogl-demos.jar, which contains the GearsApplet class, does not need to be signed! JogAmp Community signs jogl-all.jar and gluegen-rt.jar, which contain the JOGL's supporting classes; this is the only Java code which needs to be signed in order to deploy applets using JOGL and is the only certificate the end user must accept.
Sadly, due to Oracle's Java Applet Plugin update 7u51, unsigned applets are no more allowed and effectively lower the bar to create user applets with raised privileges.
Hence JogAmp Community signs jogl-all.jar and gluegen-rt.jar, which contain the JOGL's supporting classes as well as jogl-demos.jar, which contains the GearsApplet class.
jogl-demos.jar's manifest file uses Permissions: sandbox to not raise privileges.