1. Introduction

1.1. Background and Principles

This migration plan is based on the following principles:

  1. To allow a smooth and as friction free transition as possible, supporting two versions of the protocols for new as well as existing service providers must be allowed.

  2. To ensure non‐disrupted operations and full interoperability of the messages exchanged in the Peppol eDelivery network, the period during which two parallel protocols are allowed should be as short as possible.

  3. Any changes affecting the current (mandatory) Peppol element should be notified, communicated and agreed upon in the relevant Domain community (DC) well in advance.

  4. The migration is conducted in four steps at three different points in time, marked as “A”, “B” “C”

1.2. Migration criteria agreed with the European Commission

OpenPeppol agreed with the European Commission in 2016 to migrate into the AS4 protocol. An LoU (Letter of Understanding) contains the criteria that should be fulfilled and the relevant conditions and indicative timelines. The LoU laid out the roadmap for when the new AS4 protocol was to become mandatory in the Peppol eDelivery Network. Read the details of the LoU criteria here: Letter of Understanding

2. Detailed Migration Plan

This section describes the migration milestones in order to clarify which protocol is in use and which is mandatory or optional at different points in time:

A - Phase-in

  • "Phase-in" is defined as the start date for the optional use of the Peppol AS4 protocol corresponding to the publication date when the new Peppol AS4 profile specification is available for download at www.peppol.eu and therefore allowed to be used as optional protocol on the Peppol eDelivery Network.

  • The Phase-in is set to 2017-12-01

B - Transition

  • The Transition is defined as the period from the Phase-in Date until the point in time when the current Peppol AS2 protocol changes status from mandatory to Optional.

  • After the Transition Date, the new Peppol AS4 profile, becomes mandatory, to align with communication protocol strategy laid out by OpenPeppol and the European Commission

  • The Transition Date is set to 2020-02-01

C - Phase-out

  • After the phase‐out, the Peppol AS2 profile is not supported in the Peppol eDelivery network anymore. The phase-out date will be set when the transactional volume in the Peppol eDelivery Network for messages sent with the AS2 protocol drops below 20% of total traffic.

The dates in the table below summarize the migration roadmap and indicate what protocol is mandatory and what is optional at any given point in time.

They are start dates of the different phases. As an example, the date shown for A - Phase-in, 2017-12-01 is the first date where the new Peppol AS4 profile is available as an optional protocol.

Table 1. Migration Overview
Migration Milestone A - Phase-in B - Transition C - Phase-out

Date

2017-12-01

2020-02-01

Date is decided when messages sent on AS2 protocol is below 20%

Peppol AS2

Mandatory

Optional

Not in use

Peppol AS4

Optional

Mandatory

Mandatory

3. Migration rules ‐ Peppol Service Providers and end users affected by the Migration Policy

3.1. Service Providers

Service Providers joining OpenPeppol between 2019-08-01 and 2020-02-01 (6 months before the Transition Date)

Rules:

  • It is optional to support the Peppol AS2 profile so they can get into production by only supporting the Peppol AS4 profile

  • It is optional to support the Peppol AS4 profile so they can get into production by only supporting the Peppol AS2 profile

Service Providers joining OpenPeppol after 2020-02-01 (after the transition date)

Rules:

  • It is mandatory to support the Peppol AS4 profile whether sending or receiving and all service providers sending Peppol documents should preference their sending using the Peppol AS4 protocol

  • It is optional to support the Peppol AS2 profile

3.2. End-users

End-users/Receivers registered in an SMP between 2019-08-01 and 2020-02-01 (In the transition phase) Rules:

  • it is optional to be registered with the Peppol AS2 profile

  • it is optional to be registered with the Peppol AS4 profile

End-users/Receivers registered in an SMP after 2020-02-01 (after the transition date)

Rules:

  • It is mandatory for all receivers in an SMP to be registered with the Peppol AS4 profile

  • It is optional for receivers in an SMP to be registered with the Peppol AS2 profile