## 13.4.5.1  Communication Channel Security
The table below shows the communication channels used, the protocol used for the connection, and the type of data transferred.
| Communication Path                                                                                | Protocol Used   | Type of Data Transferred   | Data Requiring Special Pro- tection   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|----------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| Communication with Sup- plier Network Collaboration                                               | SOAP            | Quality notification data  |                                       |
| Communication with the Quality Inspection Engine (QIE) of the Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) | SOAP, RFC       | Inspection lot data        |                                       |
| Communication exchange of quality certificates with ex- ternal partner                            | IDoc            | Quality certificates       |                                       |
| Communication Path                                                            | Protocol Used   | Type of Data Transferred                                                                                                       | Data Requiring Special Pro- tection   |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| Quality master data replica- tion                                             | IDoc            | Master inspection character- istics Master inspection methods Codes Inspection plan Inspection setup data in ma- terial master |                                       |
| Communication with external subsystem for inspection                          | RFC, SOAP       | Inspection lot data Inspection results                                                                                         |                                       |
| Communication with exter- nal subsystem for inspection planning               | SOAP            | Inspection plan, Master inspection character- istic                                                                            |                                       |
| Communication with external subsystem for quality notifi- cations             | SOAP            | Quality notification data                                                                                                      |                                       |
| Communication with exter- nal subsystem for statistical process control (SPC) | RFC             | Inspection lot data Inspection results                                                                                         |                                       |
| Communication with SAP Manufacturing Execution (ME)                           | RFC, IDoc       | Inspection lot data Inspection results                                                                                         |                                       |
DIAG and RFC connections can be protected using Secure Network Communications (SNC). HTTP connections are protected using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. SOAP connections are protected with Web services security.
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##  Note
We strongly recommend using secure protocols (SSL, SNC) whenever possible.
For more information, see Transport Layer Security and Web Services Security in the ABAP Platform Security Guide.