Primary NE and gateway NE on an ASON network?

Hello,
The primary NE is responsible for communication between the ASON network and U2000 server. It transmits information on the ASON control plane and reports ASON events to the U2000 server. An ASON domain can have only one primary NE and one secondary NE.
A gateway NE is connected with the U2000 server using the TCP/IP protocol. Generally, an NE that is connected to the U2000 server through a LAN or WAN is a gateway NE. Multiple gateway NEs can be connected to the U2000 server.
Generally, you can configure the primary or secondary NE as the gateway NE on an ASON network to leverage ECC bandwidth resources.

Thanks