ANNEX
DEPLOYMENT, MAINTENANCE AND USAGE OF THE COMMON ADDRESSING SERVICE
The common addressing service shall consist of a central locator node, operated and maintained by the Commission, and publisher nodes operated and maintained by each Member State in compliance with the eDelivery specifications.
Senders may use the common addressing service to initiate direct system-to-system data connection between their AS4 access point and a reporting interface module using the dynamic discovery instead of a manually pre-configured connection details of the reporting interface module in their AS4 access point.
To retrieve RIM connection details, the sender’s AS4 access point shall contact a publisher node, which stores the relevant connection information. Connection details of a particular RIM or an AS4 access point shall be stored exclusively in a single publisher node. The central locator node shall facilitate this process by managing publisher nodes in the public DNS and enabling dynamic discovery.
In alternative of manually pre-configuring the connection details of the senders AS4 access point in the reporting interface module, Member States may use their publisher node to store the connection details of the AS4 access points of senders.
FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Central locator node
Central locator node shall provide the following functionalities:
ID
Name
Description
C1
Network address directory and lookup
The central locator node shall act as a central directory of RIM and AS4 access points identifiers and their respective publisher nodes identifiers and make them discoverable via public DNS.
C2
Central management of publisher nodes
The central locator node shall register, update and delete metadata of publisher nodes in the public DNS. Member States shall be able to manage their publisher node details directly through the system-to-system interface of the central locator node.
C3
Trust and Security
The central locator node shall only allow the registration and communication through publisher nodes that present a valid mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS) certificate issued by a recognized and trusted public certificate authority in accordance with eDelivery guidelines on digital certificates.
Publisher nodes
Publisher nodes shall provide the following functionalities:
ID
Name
Description
D4
Metadata provision
The publisher node shall store and provide the RIM or sender AS4 access point connection details upon request.
D5
Trust and Security
Publisher nodes shall be accessible over internet using a valid TLS certificate issued by a recognized and trusted public certificate authority in accordance with eDelivery guidelines on digital certificates.
D6
Managing records
Publisher node shall provide the possibility to manage (register, update, remove or migrate) RIM and sender AS4 access point connection details stored in the publisher node. Updates related to this information and of a publisher node that requires modification in DNS records shall be synchronised with the central locator node.
The publisher node shall store at least the following information:
ID
Name
Description
E1
Endpoint information
The RIM or AS4 access point technical addresses to which the AS4 messages are sent.
E2
Public certificate
The public trusted certificate required for the AS4 message encryption.
QUALITY CONTROL MECHANISMS
ID
Name
Description
L1
Logging and monitoring information
The central locator and publisher nodes shall offer the logging and monitoring capabilities for quality control purposes.
L2
Exception handling
The central locator and publisher nodes shall be able to detect and handle exceptions and errors and report when they occur.
