Peppol Critical Infrastructure WG

Problem Statement

The AS_IS situation and handling i.e. setting up this WG, is stated in MC1832 Mandate – v3, 2024.01.22.

Current Situation:

• SML management is done by the European Commission (EC) and is provided for free to OpenPeppol and its members on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding.

  • Not under a commercial strength SLA.

  • Capacity limitations.

  • No guarantee of indefinitely availability.

• SML is a single point of failure.

• Requirements of some countries, to have access to a service that is closer to home and perhaps owned by each country, thereby exercising sovereignty rights over the data and services concerning the end users based in their jurisdictions.

• Peppol Directory not integrated part of the Peppol Network.

• SMP 2.0 standardized and also profiled by the EC.

 Mandate: Scope and Objective

Mandate: The Critical Infrastructure Working Group shall aim to:

• Mitigate the current risks with the SML service by exploring alternative options in line with the assessment made in the present mandate

• Draw pathways towards a more robust, resilient and scalable SML and critical infrastructure more generally.

• Assess the critical infrastructure needs of the Peppol Network and propose solutions that improve the dynamic discovery architecture.

Mandate: expected work streams and deliverables

Work is expected to follow multiple streams such as, but not necessarily limited to, the following:

1. SML federation – architecture and proof of concept

2. Data and service sovereignty – subgroup led by, but not limited to, APAC countries.

3. Evolution of dynamic discovery architecture, based on needs for critical infrastructure

Indicative deliverables are expected to be the following:

1. Initiation, within 2024, of a process to improve, or disengage from, the current service of the European Commission.

2. Feasibility study for the migration to a federated SML environment.

3. Report on the possible evolution of the Peppol dynamic discovery architecture and critical infrastructure

 Method (WiP)

Middle-out approach i.e. draft Strategic and Policy (Top) level to the extend where implementation (Bottom) level is possible in order to adress risks. From here in an iterative way using bottom level to gain learnings for finalization of top level and directing bottom level towards a finalized coherent architecture.

The method is highly parallel and balancing the toplevel and the bottom level in a parellel and iterative way.

  Organization

The work is currently divided into 3 parallel groups with own short and long objectives:

CIWG A: Technical:

Objective:

Draft analysis and plans for full insourcing the Peppol SML in full (or partly):

1. Learn from the EC DG DIGIT on managing, operating and skills to operate a SML.

2. Document learnings and create impact analysis.

3. Create plan plan for insourcing (ownership) of SML to OpenPeppol.

Create the platform for Federated SML PoC:

1. Create a technical environment for a Federated SML PoC.

2. Operate the technical environment for a Federated SML PoC.

CIWG B: Architectural:

Objective:

Feasibility study for the migration to a federated SML environment:

1. Identify options for Federated SML Architecture

2. Evaluate the opations

3. Select a promissing architetcure candidate for a Federated SML PoC.

4. Design architecture for Federated SML PoC.

5. Implement, perform and evaluate Federated SML PoC.

Propose solutions that improve the dynamic discovery architecture:

1. Create Vision on Discovery Next Generation.

CIWG C: Policies, Characteristics, Principles and Requirements:

Objective:

Create Policies, Characteristics, Principles and Requirements.

1. Set Architecture Policies.

   1. Set minimal viable Policies on Data and service sovereignty.

   2. Set other Policies.

2. Set Architecture Characteristics.

3. Set Architecture Principles.

4. Set Architecture Requirements.

5. Iterative:

   1. Evaluate against current (centralised) SML Solution and Federated SML PoC (options)

   2. Evaluate against current (centralised) Peppol Directory Solution (options)

   3. Evaluate against current (decentralised) SMP Solution

 Roadmap (not updated)

 Milestones and deadlines (not updated)

 Reference materials