Implementing WebSphere Business Integration Express for Item Synchronization

Chapter 2. AS2 communications 25

2.3 AS1 and AS2 specifications

Applicability Statement 1 (AS1) and Applicability Statement 2 (AS2) are the

current specifications developed by EDIINT for securely transporting data

between organizations via the Internet. AS1 and AS2 simplify communication by

reducing the number of technologies an organization must support and manage.

If every large organization used a different data transport standard, it would be

cost prohibitive for their smaller business partners to exchange data with them

electronically. AS1 and AS2 allow organizations to implement one solution for

data exchange with all business partners who are using an AS1 or AS2 solution.

The AS1/AS2 standards benefit the user by significantly reducing traditional

communications costs associated with EDI. A side benefit has also been the

decrease in turn-around time for business transactions using AS1/AS2. With

AS1,this centered around the transfer time for e-mail. With AS2, this time has

been reduced to nearly instantaneous with direct HTTP transfers (depending

upon file size). The cost of implementing AS2 is the cost of a Web server. Most

AS2 applications can co-exist with other Web applications (depending upon load

and transaction volume).

AS2 essentially creates a wrapper around EDI flat files that enables sending

them over the Internet instead of over an expensive VAN. In addition, AS2

provides security and encryption around the HTTP packets.

AS2 is an adjustment of AS1 so that it is capable of using HTTP instead of

SMTP.It is not a replacement or a new specification as such. AS1 specifies the

packaging of the data along with an initial transport mechanism (SMTP). AS2

extends the AS1 specification by adding another transport (HTTP). AS2 also

broadens the specification by specifically acknowledging the usefulness of the

specifications for alternate data types.

AS1 and AS2 have two security options:

򐂰 Secure MIMEv3

򐂰 PGPMIME

AS2 also supports the use of HTTPS (SSL/TLS) for secure channel connections.

Documents sent using AS1/AS2 may use any combination of signed and/or

encryption using standard PKCS#7 functions in a number of vendor libraries.

AS2 testing has used for up to:

򐂰 1024 bit keys for Public Key encryption

򐂰 128 bit keys for Symmetric encryption

򐂰 SHA1 and MD5 for hashing

򐂰 Triple-DES (3DES) for encryption