ELMA Terminology

Updated: 2023-04-11

Terminology

Here are some terms which will be used throughout the ELMA manuals.

Service provider (SP)

A company that connects organizations to the Peppol network. A service provider is associated with one or more domains, and participants registered by the provider will only be approved for message exchange within the provider’s domain(s).

Access point (AP)

Represents a physical access point service endpoint, accessible through one or several URLs.

Endpoint

An access point has one or more physical endpoints represented by a URL and transport profile.

Transport profile

The transport method that must be used for communicating with a given AP. AS4 is an example of a transport profile.

Access point provider (APP)

An access point provider operates APs that the SPs can use by making an agreement.

Agreement

An agreement between an SP and an APP for usage of a specific access point.

Processes

Standardized, maintained collections of document types used in e-procurement.

Participants

Organizations that are connected to the Peppol network. (An organization might act as its own SP.) You can think of this as a “contract” between an organization and an SP, that connects the SP’s customer organizations to the Peppol network by means of the SP’s associated APP’s AP.

Certificates

Your PEPPOL SP certificate.

Domains

Collections of processes used in e-procurement.

Document types

Standardized message types belonging to processes, used in communication between APs.

Identifier

Identifier for a participant, consisting of a set prefix and an organization identifier. e.g. 9908:991825827

SML (Service Metadata Locator)

A DNS that returns the address of the SMP that holds the metadata of a given PEPPOL receiver. The SML is the only centrally operated component in the PEPPOL transport infrastructure. It is managed by OpenPEPPOL and operates out of Brussels by DG/DIGIT.