Ans :
The four layers form the basic building blocks ofEDI. They are introduced below:
• Application Layer: This layer consists of business applications which use
the EDI. The applications can be internal enterprise systems and other B2B
systems. The main responsibility of these applications is to convert the.
internal documents of company in electronic format to the standard format
supported by EDI system. So, these applications act as converters in
application Layer
• Format Layer: This layer processes the documents in EDI formats. Two
popular industry wide ED! standard formats are ANSI X12 and EDIFACT
(Electronics Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and
Transport). More about these standard forms are discussed elsewhere in this unit.
• Data Transport Layer: This layer is responsible for automatically
transferring the EDI Though e-mail is a popular format of data exchange,
there are other transportation mechanisms such as FTP, HTTP, HTTPS Dad
X.435, etc.
• Data Connection Layer: This layer consists of enterprise network
infrastructure which is used to transport data. This includes dial-up/modem
based connections, Internet, point-to-point communication etc. Other
popular format for network infrastructure includes employing of a Value
Added network (VAN) which provides an EDI account and
store-and-forward mailbox for subscribers.
