| Electronic Data Interchange | |
| The Interconnect Mailbag (ASC/X12) |
The interconnect mailbag structure applies only to ASC/X12 documents. The interconnect mailbag structure contain information to allow interchanges to be exchanged between two interconnecting entities. The structure begins with the interconnect mailbag header (IH) and is terminated by the interconnect mailbag trailer (IT). The interconnect mailbag may encapsulate the interconnect mailbag acknowledgment (IA) and/or one or more interchanges.
An interconnect entity is a transfer agent that acts on behalf of the originating sender and ultimate receiver of the document. The interconnect entity is not a party to the business transaction and may only perform syntactical analysis of the document in transit. The interconnect mailbag envelope is targeted only to these interconnect entities; the sender and receiver of the document do not see the interconnect mailbag envelope.
This topic covers:
The delimiters used in the interconnect mailbag envelope are as follows:
| Name | Character | Character Name |
| Data Element Separator | * | Asterisk |
| Data Segment Terminator | ~ | Tilde |
The interconnect mailbag is not defined to use repeating elements and component elements, so the repetition separator and component separaters are not sepcified respectively.