CIP Operations

This section provides a general description of the operations performed by components in a Commerce Interchange Pipeline (CIP), and how these operations fit within the CIP architecture. Topics covered include:

• Object mapping. Mapping designates the process by which an object is translated into a transmissible format, and is reconstituted from that format into the original object.
• Receipt and Request Generation. The CIP generates return receipts by performing a one-way hash of the business data object. This hash results in a message digest, a "fingerprint" of the original business data object. The party returning this receipt to the party that placed the original order can, additionally, digitally sign the message to verify that the order was received, that the receipt is genuine, and that it has not been tampered with in transit.
• Encryption and Digital Signing. The CIP includes components that support certificate-based public key encryption and digital signing. The use of public key encryption ensures that the business data object can only be deciphered by the party that possesses the private key for the certificate used to encrypt the object. Digital signing adds the advantage of ensuring the origin of the message, enabling the receiver to ensure that the message has not been modified, and preventing the original sender from repudiating the message.

  The use of secure MIME-encoding (S/MIME) encoding enables the sender to encode the business data object into a MIME message, digitally sign the message, and encrypt it.