Sorry for the noise,
found it afterwards, it is a parameter:
ParameterBlockJAI pb = new ParameterBlockJAI("RangeLookup");
pb.setSource("source0", inRI);
pb.setParameter("table", table);
pb.setParameter("default", defaultValue);
RenderedImage lookupImg = JAI.create("RangeLookup", pb);
Cheers,
Andrea