OBJECTIVES OF THE ACTION

 

The main objective of this project is to promote the 5 access points of the consortium, integrating the AS4 protocol and developing their Service Metadata Publishers (SMP), to the use of the eDelivery DSI (Digital Service Infrastructure) amongst both private and public entities.

The implementation of these access points accomplishes the technical specification related to the EU core service platform and will support the cross-border exchange of electronic documents based in the eDelivery AS4 Profile and the SMP profile developed by e-SENS. In this sense, the development will include the SMP and will consider the main open source implementations used by PEPPOL (according to its new AS4 alternative) and eSENS community (HOLODECK and CIPA eDelivery). The project will also have in mind the legal and technical framework defined by European regulations and directives, especially the eIDAS regulation, to promote the use of the consortium and also the PEPPOL network.

Regarding the cross-border transactions associated to these access points, the AS4EDI-19 project is transnational, not only because the headquarters of participants are in Spain, Sweden, Italy and Denmark, but also because of the thousands of companies from all Europe that already use the eDelivery services and the certified PEPPOL Access Points corresponding to this consortium and that will be adapted by this project for the cross-border exchange of electronic documents.

In this sense, this project intends to set up the 5 access points of these companies established in Sweden, Italy and Denmark linking their e-delivery cloud solutions to the EU Core Service Platform (eDelivery DSI). All these participants are EDI Provider and European leaders in Integration Brokerage, therefore will promote the exchange of electronic documents via their networks and PEPPOL,

ACCESS POINT IMPLEMENTATION

An access point is defined as an implementation of the AS2 or ebMS3/AS4 data exchange protocols (or both), technical specifications which are described in implementations of the "PEPPOL Transport Infrastructure AS2 Profile" and implementations of the ebMS3/AS4 Profile of eSENS4 respectively.

To better illustrate how an access point works, the following images represent the operability of it in the eHealth sector as an example. In this scenario, the Cloud Platform used by this project provides personalized solutions for the exchange of electronic documents, accomplishing the several legal and technical implications existing in each country. The platform is a trans-European digital service infrastructure connected to all national services structures when necessary, and also to a DSI as PEPPOL access point provider.

 

The following picture represents the entire suite of services offered by a possible software platform. It processes customer orders, delivery notes and invoices with input format whatever their origin is, as well as their destination and output format. The services are normally provided in cloud mode although some (few) clients prefer to have the platform installed and operating at their premises.

The documents to process are acquired and then forwarded by a variety of channels: as attachments to emails and registered emails, by FTP, by specific upload/download functions, by web services and APIs REST made available to external applications,etc. One of its distinctive features is the ability to take PDF documents, either native (vector) or scanned (raster), and extract their full contents with an outstanding success rate. This is done by the DDE (Doc Data Extraction) function, while the conversion between two structured formats is done by the DTF (Doc Transformation) function.

In this example the Cloud Platform offers connectivity to all public administration services and to other VANs by using several secure exchanges protocols, especially PEPPOL, based mainly on HTTPs with an AS2/AS4 server. The Platform can connect entities from different sectors such as public health laboratories, hospitals, wholesalers and pharmacy services, for the exchange of e-documents with their European partners from other VANs, mainly using PEPPOL.

Regarding the connection and integration with existing components of the DSI, as presented previously, the project will use PEPPOL. The connection between PEPPOL access points is based on the SMP and SML and can be represented as following:

The interoperability and intercommunication between platforms are guaranteed by the use of the PEPPOL exchange protocol, including the SML (Service Metadata Locators) and the SMP (Service Metadata Providers) that are supported by secure protocols, mainly HTTPs and AS2. As explained in figure above, the management of documents is always treated according to the entity´s role as document issuer or receiver. In this process, all bases defined by OpenPEPPOL are considered and guaranteed.

 

 

All the access points of this project will include a Service Metadata Publisher (SMP) installed together with the access point. They will be developed by using the e-SENS Technical Specifications and adapted to the PEPPOL new profile when the AS4 becomes included. The setting up of the SMP involves:

  • The installation in a production environment (server, network, storage, etc.) for real life
  • The successful passing of conformance tests from either a well-recognized conformance/interoperability testing organization or from the conformance testing service offered by the eDelivery Core Service Platform.