AS2 Adapter B2B add on with Process Orchestration

Hi guys,

Client insists on AS2 adapter for third party.

I have some doubts.

1) What format should I ask the client to put the data in? AS2 format or EDI format?

2) When we send data in AS2 protocol from sender to receiver, do we have to do field mappings in SAP PO? Is this something like encrypted at the sender side and decrypted at the receiver side kind of transport?

3) Can a normal system receive AS2 format data? Or PO has to do transformation? Should the target and sender have some specific format or is it interoperable across any sytem? Say using PI, we can send data from File to JDBC, SOAP, Idoc, RFC or File or anything like that is it possible while using AS2. Both sender and receiver have to use AS2 protocol?

4) Do we need Certificates installed at both sender and receiver side?

5) I read receipient systm should be up and running 24/7. What will happen if the server is down? Will those messages fail ? Can it be processed in PO again?

Regards

Harish