ive, specialized IICs emerge, the need for trading partner interaction grows. As discussed earlier, different IICs rely on each other to provide various network elements. Many emerging LECs and ISPs rely on NSPs and network co-location providers to host their equipment and carry their customers' traffic. Often they must interact with multiple IICs, such as NSPs, ILECs and DLECs, to create and deliver their service offerings. Each player in this scenario must fulfill specific tasks, all of which are interdependent. For example, a full-service ASP must set-up its customer's network to support its application services. It must place orders with an ILEC for access to the circuits serving the building, order transport services from its NSP to backhaul traffic to its data center, and create secure paths between it and the DLEC that provides private networking services for the customer's intranet. Some interactions with ILECs are standardized, but most of the IIC-to-IIC processes vary from company to company and are developed independently. A number of basic ordering scenarios, such as requests for local loops, have been standardized to some extent. For example, local service requests (LSRs) have been developed to standardize inter-provider orders for basic voice services, and access service requests (ASRs) have been standardized for ordering complex circuits, such as T-1s and T-3s among different providers. 2.5 Interconnect Gateways Specialized OSSs that are closely coupled to workflow managers and handle communication among trading partners are known as interconnect or interconnection gateways. Because of their role in inter-IIC communication, these gateways are an increasingly important part of the Internet The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS infrastructure supply chain, as we will discuss in Chapter 3. Interconnect gateway products became commercially available not long after the interconnection orders related to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 were passed. One of the perceived shortfalls of the