Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IoT
4.0
Industrie
M2M
2
Stefan Hoppe
President and Executive Director OPC Foundation
OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is the data ex- ers, manufacturers and researchers. Activities in-
change standard for secure, reliable, manufacturer- clude:
and platform-independent industrial communica-
tions. It enables data exchange between products ➞ Development and maintenance of specifications
from different manufacturers and across operating ➞ Certification and compliance testing of
systems. The OPC UA standard is based on specifi- implementations
cations that were developed in close cooperation ➞ Cooperation with other standards organizations
between manufacturers, users, research institutes
and consortia, in order to enable consistent informa- This brochure provides an overview of IoT, M2M
tion ex- change in heterogeneous systems. (Machine to Machine) and Industrie 4.0 data interop-
erability requirements and illustrates solutions, tech-
For nearly two decades, OPC has been and contin- nical details, and implementations based on
ues to be the go to connectivity standard in industry. OPC UA.
With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) era,
OPC adoption has also shown growth in new, non- With broad acceptance among representatives from
industrial markets. By introducing a Service-Orient- research, industry, and associations the OPC UA
ed-Architecture (SOA) in industrial automation sys- standard is well positioned to serve a key role in fa-
tems in 2007, OPC UA started to offer a scalable, cilitating today’s complex data and information ex-
platform-independent solution for interoperability change needs and in helping shape the future of
which combines the benefits of web services and in- data interoperability.
tegrated security with a consistent data model.
Regards,
OPC UA is an IEC standard and is therefore ideally Stefan Hoppe
suited for collaboration with other organizations. As a President and Executive Director
global, independent non-profit organization, the OPC Foundation
OPC Foundation coordinates the further develop- stefan.hoppe@opcfoundation.org
ment of the OPC standard in collaboration with us- www.opcfoundation.org
3
Contents
Digitalization is an important and highly attractive are increasingly established over ever faster and re-
growth market. The goal is to foster the integration of silient cell networks (5G as example) via SIM cards
IT technologies with products, systems, solutions embedded directly into the machines. Such point-to-
and services across the complete value chain which point connections allow the dedicated on-board
spans entire product and service life cycles. Once computers to send key data like stock levels, usage
implemented, digitalization opens the doors to un- statistics, and alarm messages for the machine own-
precedented new business opportunities and cus- ers to best supply and maintain their assets. Such
tomer value however, this is only possible if meaning- machine visibility opens the doors to new business
ful information can be shared openly and securely at models typically around logistics, maintenance, and
every level. OPC UA is a standard that makes this special condition monitoring. For example, in the
possible. commercial environment, airplane turbines deployed
at airports around the world can be continuously
INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) monitored to ensure replacement parts are sent just
The IoT brings together a broad range of technolo- in time. This optimizes maintenance scheduling, re-
gies that have traditionally not been connected via duces unplanned down-time, and flight delays – all
today’s near ubiquitous IP-based networks and puts of which reduce operation costs and maximize cus-
them to work in novel new ways. While Ethernet en- tomer satisfaction.
ables things to ‘reach’ each other, they still need a
common way to communicate meaningfully to be INTERNET
useful. While M2M is a part of the IoT, the IoT is not limited
At the heart of the Industrial IoT (IIoT), OPC UA ad- to the exchange of data between intelligent devices.
dresses the need for standardized data connectivity It also includes data from simple sensors and actua-
and interoperability for both horizontal and vertical tors (i.e wearable fitness solutions in the consumer
data communications. An example of horizontal space, safety sensors like gas and proximity detec-
communications is Machine-to-Machine (M2M) data tors in industrial settings) that are first aggregated
connectivity among shop floor systems. An example and processed locally then sent via gateways (e.g. a
of vertical communications is device-to-cloud data smart phone) to central cloud-based systems. With-
transfer. In both cases, OPC UA provides a secure, in IoT, complex networks of intelligent systems are
reliable foundation robust enough to facilitate stan- emerging. A similar development can be observed in
dards based data connectivity and interoperability. industrial solutions where networked shop floor ma-
This did not happen overnight. The OPC Foundation chines and field devices are increasingly expected to
has worked for years with companies and associa- process and combine data from other devices in-
tions around the world and continues to expand its stead of just sending their own raw data. As such,
collaborations to ensure OPC UA meets the ever- they can consume and provide information from/to
growing diversity of communication needs the IoT other field devices to create new value for the user.
era brings. Ultimately, such machine collaboration enables indi-
vidual machines to provide technicians with mainte-
GROWING MACHINE INTERACTIONS nance strategies and on-demand maintenance his-
M2M typically refers to communications between tory. A far cry from raw sensor data only systems of
two machines or between a more or less intelligent yesteryear.
device and a central computer. The communication
medium can either be a cable modem or wireless EXPANDED COMMUNICATION DIVERSITY
modem. In more modern devices which range from Communication requirements between ‘things’ and
vending machines to robots, data communications services in the IoT era are far broader than what is
5
seen in today’s established infrastructures which, pri- high scalability and speed are needed; the standard
marily relies on point-to-point communications. For must also support a secure connection oriented cli-
example, rather than query individual sensors and ent/server model for bi-directional communication
devices directly via point-to-point communications, that allows sending control commands to actors.
broader IoT systems will subscribe to the data these OPC UA supports both models.
sub-components publish via publish-subscribe Beyond simple ‘data’ sharing, a core IoT era stan-
(PubSub) protocols over IP-based networks. This will dard must facilitate rich information exchange which
simultaneously facilitate high scalability and improved requires it to support a semantic meta-data-model
security. The customer benefits created by the com- that describes the data and its purpose to help best
bination of intelligent devices and systems along with use the data directly. This is especially important
the expanded services operators and vendors pro- when large amounts of data are pooled (aggregated)
vide will serve as the foundation for realizing the po- from a diverse eco system of third party systems.
tential benefits the IoT has to offer. The OPC UA standard’s object oriented information
modeling mechanisms directly fulfill this requirement.
OPC UA FOR VERSATILE INTEROPERABILITY Scalability and the possibility of integration across all
The vision of IoT can only be realized if the underlying network layers is required as well as platform and
communication between components is based on a vendor independence. Here too the OPC UA stan-
global communication standard that can fulfill a wide dard meets these requirements in an single, integrat-
range of complex requirements. ed package.
For example, while a PubSub model is essential in
low-resource, one-to-many communications where
IoT 4.0
Industrie
M2M
OPC UA serves as the common data connectivity and collaboration standard for local and remote device access
in IoT, M2M, and Industrie4.0 settings.
6 OPC UA IN THE WORLD
➞ Criteria 2:
Industrie 4.0 communication
Mandatory: Product addressable online via
TCP/UDP&IP with at least the information
model from OPC UA
➞ Criteria 5:
Industrie 4.0 services and conditions
Optional: Information such as statuses, error
messages, warnings, etc. available via OPC
UA information model in accordance with an
industry standard
Independence of the communication The OPC Foundation is a vendor-independent non-profit organization. Membership is not required
technology from manufacturer, for using the OPC UA technology or for developing OPC UA products. OPC is widely used in auto-
sector, operating system, mation but is technologically sector-neutral. OPC UA runs on all operating systems – there are even
programming language chip layer implementations without an operating system. OPC UA can be implemented in all lan-
guages – currently stacks in Ansi C/C++, .NET and Java are available.
Scalability for integrated networking OPC UA scales from 15 kB footprint (Fraunhofer Lemgo) through to single- and multi-core hardware
including the smallest sensors, with a wide range of CPU architectures (Intel, ARM, PPC, etc.) OPC UA is used in embedded field
embedded devices and PLC devices such as RFID readers, protocol converters etc. and in virtually all controllers and SCADA/
controllers, PCs, smartphones, HMI products as well as MES/ERP systems. Projects have already been successfully realized in
mainframes and cloud applications. various cloud environments including Amazon, Foxconn, Google and Microsoft Azure Cloud.
Horizontal and vertical
communication across all layers.
Secure transfer and authentication OPC UA provides mechanisms for application and user authentication. Signed and encrypted trans-
at user and application levels fer mechanisms for data integrity and confidentiality, as well as a rights concept at data point level
for authorization along with audit functionality.
SOA, transport via established OPC UA is independent of the transport method. Different protocol bindings are available for differ-
standards such as TCP/IP for ent use cases (high-performance applications, Web Browser access). Additionally a Publish/Sub-
exchanging live and historic data, scribe (PubSub) communication model can be used. The stacks guarantee consistent transport of
commands and events (event/ all OPC UA data. Besides live and real time data, historical data and its mathematical aggregates are
callback) also standardized in OPC UA. Furthermore, method calls with complex arguments are supported
along with alarming and eventing via a token based mechanism (late polling).
Mapping of information content with OPC UA provides a fully networked object-oriented address space (hierarchical and full-meshed
any degree of complexity for networks), that includes metadata and object descriptions. Object structures can be generated via
modeling of virtual objects to referencing between object instances and their underlytng type definitions which, are also object
represent the actual products and oriented and can be extended through inheritance. Since OPC UA servers carry both their object
their production steps. instances and associated type objects, OPC UA clients can navigate in any given OPC UA servers
address space to obtain all the instance and type information they need, even for types previously
unknown to them. This is a base requirement for Plug-and-Produce functionality without prior con-
figuration of the devices.
Unplanned, ad hoc communication OPC UA defines different “discovery” mechanisms for identification and notification of OPC UA-
for plug-and-produce function with capable devices and their functions within a network. OPC UA participants can be collocated (on the
description of the access data and same host), in a subnet or distributed globally (within enterprise). Aggregation across subnets and
the offered function (services) for intelligent, configuration-less procedures (e.g. Zeroconf) are used to identify and address network
self-organized (also autonomous) participants.
participation in “smart” networked
orchestration/combination of
components
Integration into engineering and The OPC Foundation successfully collaborated with other organizations (PLCopen, MDIS, FDI, AIM,
semantic extension VDMA, MTConnect, AutomationML, etc.) and continues to expand its collaboration activities with
groups from an ever-broader range of industries. See page 20 for list of current collaboration part-
ners.
Verification of conformity with the OPC UA is an IEC standard (IEC 62541) for which tools and test laboratories are available for testing
defined standard and certifying conformity. Additional test events (e.g. Plugfest) enhance the quality and ensure com-
patibility. Expanded tests are required for extensions/amendments (companion standards, seman-
tics). In addition, various validations of data security and functional safety are performed by external
test and certification bodies.
8 OPC UA IN THE WORLD
One the major goals of the “Industrial Internet Consortium” (IIC) is the creation of industry use cases and
testbeds for real-world applications. The testbeds create recommendations for the reference architecture and
frameworks necessary for interoperability. OPC UA is the enabling technology for SoA interoperability and
thus part of the IIC Connectivity Framework published in February 2017.
The Chinese government put forward a Made In China 2025 plan to facilitate China’s transformation from a
manufacturing giant with a sole focus on quantity to one with an edge in higher quality products. The central
focus of the Made In China 2025 initiative is Intelligent Manufacturing, which is based on deep integration of
new-generation information technology and advanced manufacturing technology. It is an effective means to
achieve the goals of shortening product development cycles, increasing production efficiency, and improving
product quality while reducing operating costs and energy consumption.
Intelligent Manufacturing requires horizontal and vertical integration of all information systems, including IT
and OT systems in factories and plants. This not only requires the transmission of raw data values but also
semantic-based information exchange. Based on these requirements, OPC UA was adopted because it sup-
ports semantic-based communications via information modeling and services based on a services-oriented
architecture (SOA). OPC UA was a natural fit for the integration of interconnected networks in digital factory/
plant and facilitates semantic interoperability. Therefore, SAC/TC124 has organized to transfer OPC UA
specifications to Chinese recommended national standard.
»Industrial IoT can be viewed as the convergence of »In 2015, ITEI undertook 7 Intelligent Manufacturing
ICT and OT in the various industrial verticals.The re- Projects issued from MIIT, in which basic and common
sulting technology innovation has created an inflec- standards regarding to intelligent manufacturing body
tion point that will change how we think of, partici- will be set. One project is “Industrial control networks
pate in and benefit from the industrial sector. In standard research and verification platform”, and one
response to this inflection point, there is an emerging task of this project is to draft a national standard named
ecosystem that includes standards, best practices “OPC UA-based unified architecture for interconnected
and reference architectures. This ecosystem in- networks in digital plant”, which will provide a unified
cludes both industry stakeholders and government solution for interconnecting the networks among de-
initiatives across geographies and verticals. OPC vice level, control and management level in digital plant.
Foundation is an essential part of that emerging eco- This standard will promote, that the device manufactu-
system. It defines OPC UA, a standard that is funda- rers should provide OPC UA servers for their produced
mental to linking the ICT an OT environments in a devices directly, and the software vendors should bet-
way that is both secure and forward looking, thus ter to embed OPC UA clients. Therefore, for the device
enabling new innovations such as real time manufac- manufacturers and the software vendors, it is only nee-
turing, digital manufacturing and low latency/time ded to invest and develop once, while for the manufac-
sensitive industrial systems.« turing enterprises and the system integrators, it will
avoid case-by-case solutions, which will decrease inte-
Wael William Diab, Senior Director, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
grating costs and cycles greatly.«
The government of the Republic of Korea announced the vision of “Manufacturing Renaissance: Made in
Korea” in June 2019 to make the world’s four major manufacturing powers leap through manufacturing
revival. To achieve the Manufacturing Renaissance Vision, Korea aims to accelerate innovation in industrial
infrastructure through digitalization, eco-friendliness, and an ovarll convergence of the manufacturing indus-
try. Korea plans to spread smart factory technologies to SME companies in cooperation with domestic and
foreign solution companies. OPC UA technology will be used as a key industrial standard for connecting OT
(Operational Technology) and IT (Information Technology) in smart factories.
»The true potential of Industrial IoT will be realized with »OPC UA is helping to overcome various challenges
solutions that guarantee interoperability across busi- in the digitalization process of the manufacturing site
ness domains, where are independent from vendors in the past. In particular, it has supported incredible
and platforms on the market. As one of the largest ma- scalability to allow flexible communication of various
nufacturing companies in the world, Samsung Electro- manufacturing facilities, and it has relieved software
nics sees its great value proposition of the OPC Found- developers of the burden of dealing with numerous
ation in terms of protocol interoperability that enables vendor-specific protocols by providing a single, and
seamless Industrial IoT services. Especially, the OPC standardized communication method. HANCOM
Foundation delivers the promising solutions of the OPC MDS has developed “Industrial IoT platform Thing-
UA framework in terms of not only specifications, but SPIN®” to generate data sets for use in machine
also the reliable open source implementations, which learning and deep learning as well as make it easy to
guarantees the OPC UA Certifications. This will help us connect, collect, and visualize the state of the pro-
to accelerate Samsung‘s efforts in deploying the intero- duction facilities. We are applied OPC UA as the
perable Industrial IoT edge platform for our manufactu- most important data source.«
ring infrastructures.«
Sangsoo Kim, Leader of IIoT Platform Team, Hancom MDS
»OPC UA is an essential component of the connect- »Manufacturing in the digital world requires a highly
ed products that manufacturing customers need to- connected and intelligent approach to provide high
day, and it is increasingly seen as an important part responsiveness to individualized customer demands,
of enterprise IoT scenarios and business models. In to enable flexible manufacturing processes and to
keeping with our commitment to openness and col- fully empower production workers. In order to
laboration, Microsoft is fully committed to supporting achieve this SAP is using and supporting standards
OPC UA and its evolution.« like OPC UA to ensure simple, scalable and safe in-
formation exchange with the shop floor.«
Matt Vasey, Director of IoT Business Development, Microsoft,
OPC board member
Veronika Schmid-Lutz, Chief Product Owner Manufacturing, SAP AG,
OPC board member
Global Players
Vimal Kapur, President Honeywell Process Solution Dr. Jürgen Weinhofer, Vice-President Control Architecture and Technology,
Rockwell Automation, OPC board member
13
»One of the principal ideas of the Industrial Internet of »In the future, customers across various industries
Things (IIoT) is to connect industrial systems that will no longer be bound to suppliers based on the
communicate data analytics and actions to improve communications protocol used and competition will
performance and efficiency. The implementation of more strongly focus on creating value. Adoption of
IIoT will require a paradigm change in the way organ OPC UA over TSN will drive this paradigm also into
izations design and expand industrial systems. the world of deterministic and real-time communica-
Therefore, the integration with existing or third-party tion. At the same time, it will enable using the same
automation devices through standard, secure com- consistent information model from the field to the
munication protocols is paramount. OPC UA stands cloud.«
up to this challenge by providing a widely adopted
Dr. Bernhard Eschermann, CTO of ABB Industrial Automation Division
and secure industry standard for interoperability be-
tween dissimilar processing elements and IT devices
on the factory floor. NI has adopted OPC UA in its
portfolio of embedded devices to help drive the inter-
connectivity of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) in the
evolutionary process of IIoT.«
James Smith, Director for Embedded Systems Product Marketing,
National Instruments
»Yokogawa has been a member of OPC Foundation »OPC UA will provide a common layer of technical
since its establishment and has made a major contri- and semantic inoperability for M2M and M2H
bution to the development of the OPC specifications, (Machine to Human) communications that is critical
from OPC Classic to OPC UA. Yokogawa has also for enabling the Industrial Internet. By establishing
released many OPC-compatible products and incor- interoperability standards together as an industry, we
porates these in the many solutions that it provides will provide a scalable, reliable platform for GE and
to its customers. Yokogawa is fully committed to others to build out the Industrial Internet and expand
OPC UA and will continue to play a role in its devel- the value and capabilities we can provide for our
opment.« customers.«
Shinji Oda, Yokogawa, President OPC Council Japan, OPC board member Danielle Merfeld, Global Research Technology Director, General Electric
14 QUOTES – INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIERS AND USERS
»With OPC UA a future proven and manufacturer-in- »OPC UA has the potential for an immediate cross-
dependent communication standard is offered to the vendor implementation of Industrie 4.0 and the nec-
industry. Its scalability allows horizontal and vertical essary internet based services.
networking of systems, machines and processes. The adoption of this open standard is an opportunity
Bosch Rexroth consistently uses this internationally for vendors and users. Proprietary solutions will not
accepted open standard as a key technology and generate an adequate value.«
offers extensive services and semantic information Dr.-Ing. Reinhold Achatz, Head of Corporate Function Technology,
models for its products. We develop the functiona- Innovation & Sustainability, ThyssenKrupp AG
Pioneers in automation
»In order to reap the benefits of the promise made by »In the production of the future, standardized inter-
Industry 4.0, OPAF, … Schneider Electric believes faces like OPC UA will be essential for the communi-
that vertical and horizontal communication interoper- cation and connection of intelligent components
ability across the automation pyramid is a must for which are ready for Plug and Produce. Thereby we
industrial customers. The combination of OPC UA will be able to connect modular and scalable produc-
Client Server, OPC UA Pub Sub and the extension of tion facilities much easier to superordinate systems
OPC UA including TSN down to the field will enable like MES or ERP. At the OPC Day Europe in 2014 we
such interoperability. That’s why our open EcoStrux- already showed an OPC UA test implementation in
ure Plant & Machine architecture will standardize on our production. Also the innovative transport system
OPC UA over the time.« Multi-Carrier-System and the automation platform
CPX both have an OPC UA interface for integration
Dr. Fabrice Jadot, Next Generation Automation Solution Incubator SVP,
Schneider Electric, OPC Board Member
into Industrie 4.0 HOST environments.«
Prof. Dr. Peter Post, Leiter Corporate Research and Technology, FESTO
»OPC UA proves to be ideal for implementing the »One main challenge of Digital Factory is the horizon-
functionality required for Industrie 4.0, in terms of tal and vertical communication among with all sys-
communication within automation systems, and in- tems and devices. For example, a MES system
teroperability between Industrie 4.0 components via needs to fetch data from each PLC in a production
defined objects and semantics. Due to the interna- line, which means huge costs. Fortunately, OPC UA
tional support of different automation solution provid- connects but also reduces costs for this effort. It pro-
ers, the protocol already finds a use in numerous vides a secured standardized interface for device
devices, from the sensor level to Manufacturing Ex- data and their meaning. Therefore, we developed
ecution Systems (MES) to Enterprise Resource Plan- Industry Real-time DB product suite, AicVision, com-
ning systems (ERP). Acceptance and a future-orient- pletely based on OPC UA, and provide comprehen-
ed technological basis will result in the development sive data integration solutions for Digital Factory.«
of an international and evolving standard – OPC UA
Peizhe Wang, CEO AIC
provides this basis.«
»OPC UA represents an essential step forward in tru- »Communication is not about data. Communication
ly open communications standards, without which is about information and access to that in an
there can be no Industrie 4.0 or industrial Internet of easy and secure way. This is what the cooperation
Things. OPC UA is consistent with OMAC’s most im- PLCopen and OPC Foundation is all about. OPC UA
portant initiatives, combining standards with functio- technology creates the possibility for a transparent
nality to bridge the persistent gap between machi- communication independent of the network, which
nes, control platforms, and management systems.« is the foundation for a new communication age in
industrial control.«
John Kowal, Board member OMAC & PMMI
(B&R Industrial Automation Corp)
Eelco van der Wal, Managing Director PLCopen
»BACnet and OPC UA are already cooperating in »OPC UA offers a standardized information model
the exploration of new opportunities for integration for exchanging sub-surface and platform information
between industrial and building automation: Energy in the Oil & Gas industry. This OPC UA information
data are semantically defined through BACnet and model was developed by a consortium of Oil and
can conveniently and interoperably be made avail- Gas Operating companies, sub-sea vendors and
able to enterprise systems via OPC UA: An ideal DCS platform vendors. The certified OPC UA inter-
standardization from sensor right up to IT billing sys- faces along with standardize exchange of configura-
tems.« tion information and communication, greatly reduces
engineering and testing costs, which is a real win for
Frank Schubert, member of the BACnet Interest Group Europe
advisory board
all parties.«
OPC
Organization
55 % EUROPE Members
6 % JAPAN
8 % CHINA
8 % OTHER
With more than 730 members, the OPC Foundation from member companies on a voluntary basis. The
is the world‘s leading organization for interoperability organization is financed entirely from membership
solutions based on the OPC specifications. fees and receives no government grants. The organi-
All members, including corporate members, end us- zation operates worldwide and has regional contacts
ers and non-voting members, are committed to inte- on all continents. All members have identical voting
grated, compatible communication between soft- rights, irrespective of their size.
ware-driven devices, including cyber physical
systems (CPS), in industrial automation environ- MEMBER DISTRIBUTION
ments. Although the head office is in Phoenix, Arizona, most
The OPC Foundation offers a marketing program in- members (above 50 %) are based in Europe. Around
cluding a newsletter, website and various training one third of the members are based in North Ameri-
and information events aimed at manufacturers of ca. All main manufacturers of automation technology
automation solutions and providers of OPC technol- are members of the OPC Foundation and already of-
ogy. The OPC Foundation together with its member fer OPC technologies in their products.
companies offers events and training programs for
end users of the OPC technology to help market the MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
technology to users in potentially new markets. The Members of the OPC Foundation have full access to
cooperation of developers and users in working the latest OPC specifications and preliminary ver-
groups is crucial to ensure that practical require- sions. They can take part in all working groups and
ments and user feedback are taken into account in contribute requirements and solution proposals.
the specifications. The OPC Foundation encourages Members have free access to core implementations
end users to join working groups to help ensure that and sample code. In addition, script-based test and
the practical requirements and feedback are fac- analysis tools are provided.
tored into the specification development process, Manufacturers of OPC-capable products can have
especially for information model companion specifi- these certified in accredited test laboratories. The
cations. developer and user community meets at events to
exchange information and to network. Multiple times
INDEPENDENCE each year, at various locations around the world, a
The OPC Foundation is a non-profit organization that week-long interoperability workshop (IOP) is held, at
is independent of individual manufacturers or special which the latest products and their interaction are
technologies. Members of the working groups come tested.
20 OPC FOUNDATION
OPC UA at a glance
Information models follow a layered approach. Core OPC UA integrates and standardizes the different
Information Models are already defined as part of the address spaces and the services, so that OPC UA
OPC UA specification. Each high-order type is based clients only require a single interface for navigation.
on certain basic rules. In this way clients that only The OPC UA address space is structured hierarchi-
know and implement the basic rules can neverthel- cally, to foster the interoperability of clients and serv-
ess process complex information models. ers. The top levels are standardized for all servers. All
Although they don’t understand the deeper relation- nodes in the address space can be reached via the
ships, they can navigate through the address space hierarchy. They can have additional references
and read or write data variables, execute methods or among each other, so that the address space forms
receive notifications. a cohesive network of nodes.
The OPC UA address space not only contains in-
INTEGRATED ADDRESS SPACE MODEL stances (instance space), but also the instance types
The object model enables production data, alarms, (type space).
events and historic data to be integrated in a single
OPC UA server. This allows, for example to represent
a temperature measuring device as an object with its
temperature value, alarm parameters and corre-
sponding alarm limits.
Root
“Located In”
reference
Area 2
Current Value Hi Limit Lo Limit
Area 3
Hi Alarm Lo Alarm
Address Space
Tool or API
Language PLATFORM-INDEPENDENCE INFORMATION MODELS WITH OPC UA
Dependent Proxy /
(e.g. .NET) Stubs Unlike “Classic OPC”, which is based on DCOM The OPC UA object model defines a set of standard-
Protocol
technology and is therefore inevitably linked to the ized node types, which can be used to represent
Binding Windows platform and the languages supported objects in the address space. This model represents
Abstract UA Model there, OPC UA was designed for application on arbi- objects with their variables (data/properties), meth-
Specification
trary platforms using arbitrary program languages. ods, events and their relationships with other ob-
jects.
Abstract UA Model ➞ At the lowest level are the abstract model, the The node properties are described through attributes
Specification Client-Server services and PubSub messages, defined by OPC UA. Attributes are the only elements
including the whole address space model, differ- of a server that have data values. The data types of
ent object and variable structures, alarms and the attributes can be simple or complex.
more. OPC UA enables modeling of any object and variable
types and the relationships between them. The se-
➞ The next level (Protocol Binding) is used to mantics is indicated by the server in the address
specify how services and messages are to be space and can be picked up by clients (during navi-
mapped to certain protocols. In the future – once gation). Type definitions can be standardized or ven-
new technologies become established – further dor-specific. Each type is identified by the organiza-
mappings can be specified without having to tion that is responsible for its definition.
change the abstract model, services or messag-
es. The mappings are entirely based on standard- GENERIC OPC UA INFORMATION MODELS
ized basic protocols, which already exist on all Models for generally valid information (e.g. alarms or
known platforms. automation data) are already specified by OPC UA.
Other information models with further specialization
➞ The following levels are realizations for dedi- of the general definitions are derived from this. Cli-
cated platforms and languages. The OPC Foun- ents that are programmed against the general mod-
dation itself provides open source implementa- els are therefore also able to process the specialized
tions, see https://github.com/OPCFoundation/. models to a certain extent.
App Authentication of
Security OPC UA Comms OPC UA Comms
client, server, messages
OPC UA is one of the most important modern stan- An extensive analysis of the security functions in the
dards for industrial facilities and many further sce- specification of OPC UA confirmed that OPC UA
narios in an intelligent and connected world. OPC was designed with a focus on security and does not
UA is considered a central building block on the way contain systematic security vulnerabilities. Addition-
towards Industrie 4.0. It enables integration between ally a selected reference stack (ANSI C, Linux, Intel-
Download: various layers of the automation pyramid from sensor 32bit, single thread) was assessed regarding the
www.opcfoundation.org/security/ up to the ERP system. It is the first time a unified, implementation of the security functionality. No crash
worldwide recognized industrial protocol can be em- could be generated during many tests of the com-
ployed that allocates necessary cryptographic munication stack. A list of security enhancements of
mechanisms for a secure smart factory. In order to the reference implementation was submitted to the
assess the quality of the security mechanisms of OPC Foundation. At all time the OPC Foundation
OPC UA BSI has conducted a comprehensive and supported BSI in their security check effort.
independent security check.
32 OPC UA FIELD LEVEL COMMUNICATIONS INITIATIVE
At the SPS IPC Drives fair 2018 in Nuremberg/ Ger- The FLC-related technical work includes the follow-
many the OPC Foundation has officially launched the ing topics:
Field Level Communications (FLC) Initiative. This ini-
tiative aims for an open, unified, standards-based ➞ harmonization and standardization of
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) communication so- application profiles like IO, motion control, safety,
lution addressing all requirements of industrial auto- system redundancy
mation in discrete manufacturing and process indus- ➞ standardization of OPC UA information
try. Consequently, the OPC Foundation vision of models for field level devices in online and
becoming the worldwide industrial interoperability offline scenarios e.g. device description resp.
standard is advanced by integrating field devices and diagnostics
the shop floor. Vendor independent end-to-end in- ➞ mapping of OPC UA application profiles
teroperability into field level devices is provided for all related to real-time operations on Ethernet
relevant industry automation use-cases requiring networks including TSN
safe, secure and deterministic information exchange: ➞ definition of certification procedures
MEMBERS OF
THE STEERING ➞ Horizontal integration: controller-to-controller
COMMITTEE: communication resp. machine-to-machine
communication (M2M)
ABB ➞ Vertical integration: from sensors /actuators
Beckhoff and controllers in the field to IT systems or the
Rexroth cloud and vice versa.
B&R
Cisco
Festo
Hilscher
Hirschmann
ERP
Huawei MES
SCADA
Industrial
Intel Interoperability:
From Sensor
Kalycito into Cloud
Kuka
Mitsubishi Electric
Molex
Moxa
Murrelektronik
Omron
Phoenix Contact Controller Controller DCS
Pilz
Rockwell Automation
Schneider Electric New Initiative for Field
Level Communications
Siemens
TTTech
Wago
Yokogawa Scope of the Field Level Communications (FLC) Initiative
33
System Architecture
Joint Device
I/O Motion Safety
Profiles
Companion
Device
OPC DI
Facet Configuration
Base
UA
Communication
C/S
Communication
Facet
PubSub
Mapping
UDP, TSN, 5G, …
Network
IEC 60802
Mapping
IEEE 802.1
Part 2 – Security Model Part 9 – Alarms & Conditions ➞ 3. Utility type specifications. These contain ad-
ditional solutions for finding of OPC UA-capable
Part 3 – Address Space Model Part 10 – Programs
components and their access points in a network
plus the description of aggregate functions and
Part 4 – Services Part 11 – Historical Access
calculations for processing historic information.
Part 5 – Information Model
Part 12 – Discovery
Part 7 – Profiles
Part 13 – Aggregates
Part 14 – PubSub
➞ 1.
OPC UA stack.
Communication stacks have been developed in
three programming languages: ANSI C for scal-
able implementation on virtually all devices, in
managed C# for application with the .Net Frame-
work from Microsoft, plus an implementation in
Java for applications in corresponding interpreter ➞ 3 . Certification program.
environment. Communication stacks ensure the For testing and certification of compliant behav-
basic communication in the network. As there are ior, the OPC Foundation offers a software Com-
several open source and commercial implemen- pliance Test Tool (CTT). The CTT can be used to
tations available, only the C# stack is maintained verify the compliant behavior of an OPC UA ap-
by the OPC Foundation. plication. In addition, the OPC Foundation offers
a certification program that provides independent
➞2 . Example Code. certification laboratories where manufacturers
Besides the communication stacks, which basi- can have their OPC UA products certified. Certifi-
cally contain only the protocol implementation, cation extends the testing of the CTT and in-
the OPC Foundation also provides sample appli- cludes Interoperability testing, stress testing, us-
cations. The samples are provided in source ability testing, and performance testing in
code (mainly C#) and can be used for evaluation environments the product will be typically used in.
of the OPC UA technology and for proof-of- con-
cept coding, for rapid implementation of proto- ➞ 4 . Interoperability workshops.
types and demonstrators. For integration of OPC The OPC Foundation holds at least three week-
UA technology in professional and industrial long interoperability workshops (IOP), where
hardened products, the OPC Foundation recom- companies can test the interaction of their prod-
mends the use of commercial Toolkits and Soft- ucts. The European IOP event is usually held in
ware Development Kits (SDK) which, are offered the Autumn at Siemens AG in Nuremberg. The
by various OPC member companies. North American IOP is usually held in the spring
at Honeywell in Phoenix and the OPC Japan or-
ganization usually holds an IOP in the Summer.
These events include OPC Foundation support
and are a great precursor to vendors’ product
certifications.
36 OPC FOUNDATION – RESOURCES
Laboratory – Certification
CODE AND ADVICE The developer frameworks e.g. toolkits are available
The OPC Foundation initially developed three OPC at attractive prices as binary “black box” compo-
UA communication stacks (C, .NET and Java) in or- nents or includingcomplete source code. In addition
der to ensure interoperability at protocol level. Al- to the source code for the OPC UA stacks of the
though members have access to the source code of OPC Foundation, commercial toolkits offer simplifi-
the stacks, it is recommended to use a commercial cations and convenience functions. The general
toolkit in view of the fact that, in addition to the ac- OPC UA functionality is encapsulated behind an API.
tual communication layer for OPC UA applications, For this reason application developers do not need
– especially for an OPC UA server – further specific detailed OPC UA expertise. A stable, tested library
administrative functions have to be implemented. enables them to focus on their own core compe-
In particular, commercial toolkits help by abstracting tence.
and consolidating generic functions such as connec-
tion management, certificate management and se- QUALITY AND FUNCTION
curity features. Using toolkits e.g. developer frame- OPC UA toolkits are used for a wide range of appli-
works offers vendors advantages for implementation cation scenarios in industrial environments. For that
and time to market. reason they are robust, certified, are being main-
tained and continuously enhanced. Toolkit providers
EXPERT KNOWLEDGE offer specialized and optimized developer frame-
A number of companies around the world offer com- works for various programming languages. Toolkits
mercial support for the integration of OPC UA com- differ in their OPC UA-specific functionality and in
munication technology in existing products and the terms of their application, use-case and operational
implementation of new products, ranging from ad- environment. All toolkits are offered with professional
vice and developer training to selling software librar- support and development service. Further informa-
ies and development support right up to long-term tion is available from toolkit manufacturers.
support and maintenance contracts.
Collaborations
The OPC Foundation closely cooperates with orga- through its secure and effective transport and offers
nizations and associations from various branches. access priviliges and generic interoperability. Thus
Specific information models of other standardization communication across branches and domains is
organizations are mapped onto OPC UA and thus made possible without sacrificing particular, seman-
become portable. The organizations define „what“ tic, branch-specific objects and types.
shall be communicated. OPC UA delivers „how“
Engineering Industries
IT Process
Automation
Consortia IO Level
LNI4.0
LABS NETWORK INDUSTRIE 4.0
Industrial
Value Chain
Initiative
IEC61850
IEC61970
COLLABORATIONS
38 Collaborations Overview 44 Euromap – Plastics and Rubber Machinery
39 PLCopen – Client and server in controller 45 VDMA – Machine Vision
40 AutomationML – OPC UA for engineering 46 FDI – OPC UA in Process Automation
41 AIM – RFID and other AutoID systems 47 MDIS – Offshore Oil & Gas
42 VDMA – Overview activities 48 OPEN-SCS – OPC UA in Pharmaceutical Industry
43 VDMA – Robotics 49 HKI – OPC UA for Commercial Kitchen Equipment
COLLABORATIONS 39
The interaction between IT and the world of automa- PLC CONTROLLER INITIATES HORIZONTAL
tion is certainly not revolutionary, but is based on the AND VERTICAL COMMUNICATION
long-established model of the automation pyramid: In collaboration with the OPC Foundation, the PLC-
The upper level initiates a data communication (as a open (association of IEC6-1131-3-based controller
client) with the level below, which responds (as serv- manufacturers) has defined corresponding OPC UA
er) cyclically or event-driven: A visualization, for ex- client function blocks. In this way the controller can
ample, can request status data from the PLC or play the active, leading role, in addition or as an alter-
transfer new production recipes to the PLC. native to the usual distribution of roles. The PLC can
With Industrie 4.0 this strict separation of the levels thus horizontally exchange complex data structures
and the top-down approach of the information flow with other controllers or vertically call up methods in
will start to soften and mix: In an intelligent network an OPC UA server in an MES/ERP system, e.g. to
each device or service can autonomously initiate a retrieve new production orders or write data to the
communication with other services. cloud. This enables the production line to become
active autonomously – in combination with integrat-
ed OPC UA security a key step towards Industrie
4.0.
SEMANTIC INTEROPERABILITY
A mapping of the IEC61131-3 software model to the
OPC UA server address space is defined through the
Cloud standardization of the two organizations: The advan-
UA_ReadList
Storage BOOL
DWORD
Execute
ConnectionHdl
Done
Busy
BOOL
BOOL tage for users is that a PLC program that is executed
UINT NodeHdlCount Error BOOL
ARRAY OF DWORD NodeHdls ErrorID DWORD on different controllers from different manufacturers,
ARRAY OF STRUCT NodeAddInfos NodeErrorIDs ARRAY OF DWORD
TIME Timeout TimeStamps ARRAY OF DT externally results in semantically identical access for
OPC UA server ARRAY OF Vendor specific Variables Variables ARRAY OF Vendor specific
BOOL Execute Done BOOL is already used by other organizations and is the ac-
DWORD ConnectionHdl Busy BOOL MES
DWORD MethodHdl Error BOOL tual challenge of Industrie 4.0.
TIME Timeout ErrorID DWORD
Vendor specific InputArguments InputArguments Vendor specific
Vendor specific OutputArguments OutputArguments Vendor specific
SCADA/HMI
PLCs
Factory Floor
40 COLLABORATIONS
The factory of the future shall be capable of produc- AUTOMATION MLTM AND OPC UA
ing customer-specific products in ever new variants. FOR INDUSTRIE 4.0
Those involved in engineering and production shall Self-configuration can be achieved by using Auto-
react on short notice to changed customer wishes, mation ML to describe the capabilities of compo-
even after order intake. Uncertainties in markets lead nents and machines and OPC UA to enable them to
to versatile factories and manufacturing equipment. communicate with each other. The companion stan-
Industrie 4.0 is the strategic framework program for dard that was mutually developed between OPC
the German industry entrenching growing digitaliza- Foundation and AutomationML e. V. aims at combin-
tion in its construction bureaus and production halls. ing the two technologies such that in case of modifi-
A wide range of individual industrial-suited standards cations in the factory data is communicated current-
is available, which now have to be purposefully con- ly, consistently and reliably. To this end, features and
solidated. capabilities are stored as AutomationML objects
Also the Industrie 4.0 ICT architecture needs the within the very components. Consequently, they are
ability to adapt to changes – either by adding new readily available to the control system as OPC UA
equipment or production processes into the system information model at the time of physical integration.
or by changing existing production systems e.g. be- Component suppliers identify the information re-
cause a new, additional product variant has to be quired for this purpose in advance and include it in
manufactured. If in the future work pieces, machines the components themselves. Machine builders or
or material flow systems communicate with each system integrators thereby save approximately 20 %
other, they need a common language and a universal time in the case of initial start-ups or changes in ma-
transmission channel. Only both components collec- chines and production systems for the physical and
tively lead to inter-operable solutions. informal integration of components on the basis of
A central idea of Industrie 4.0 is that objects involved the “plug & play” principle. Configuration mistakes
in production comprehensibly describe will be reduced because the data flow is automated.
their unique identity and their capa- Even greater potential can be opened up if data re-
bilities. If then new components, quired for the configuration of an HMI or superim-
machines or equipment are posed MES are taken from the engineering systems
brought into the production on which they are based and stored directly in OPC
system or changes appear in UA information models as AutomationML objects.
production, the appropriate
software modules can quickly
and efficiently adjust the
configuration of ICT sys-
tems.
COLLABORATIONS 41
In 2014, the AIM System Integration working group Hannover Messe. The first RFID devices by Siemens
decided to define a new, forward-looking, technolo- and HARTING were launched and presented on
gy-independent and manufacturer-independent OPC Foundation booth. Meanwhile the AutoID Com-
communication standard for the AutoID industry. panion Specification has been integrated into devic-
Until then, many devices communicated via proprie- es by many AutoID manufacturers: In November
tary interfaces, and various communication stan- 2018 on SPS Drives trade fair many different bar-
dards and technologies. code, HF and UHF devices with OPC UA interface
Today, AutoID technology is a self-explanatory tool were from additional companies like Balluff, Leuze
for implementing an overall solution, e.g. an auto- electronic, Sick and Turck. Standard, secure data
matically functioning warehousing logistics centre. communication with various devices from different
Communication barriers are unwanted! The AutoID manufacturers is based on OPC UA, the future-proof
technology used should be determined by the ap- communication standard in the automation industry.
plication and not by the communication interface of AutoID devices still differ, with manufacturer-specific
the devices. Motivated by these ideas and require- functions and options, but their data exchange is
ments, the AIM working group decided to define a standardized, which greatly simplifies the integration
communication interface based on OPC UA. of AutoID technology. The work of the System Inte-
Thanks to the object-oriented structure, OPC UA gration working group did not end in 2016. The par-
was highly suited to the development of a common ticipants continue to work on extending and improv-
communication standard for the various AutoID ing the interface specification.
technologies. Commonalities – like a scan method On Hannover Messe 2019 the latest OPC UA for Au-
for simple detection of an ID – can thus be defined in toID Companion Specification was released of the
higher-level classes. OPC Unified Architecture for AutoID Companion
In 2016, AIM introduced the new OPC Unified Archi- Specification.
tecture for AutoID Companion Specification at the
Industrial Ethernet
And more…
HF-RFID UHF-RFID
Mobile RTLS
1D/2D Codes
AutoID topology with OPC UA Computing
42 COLLABORATIONS
Migration path for interoperability Overview of OPC UA Companion Specification Working Groups
Overview of OPC UA in the VDMA organizations
» Agricultural Machinery » Engines » Micro Technologies » Textile Machinery
Cross domain » Air Conditioning & Ventilation » Engines & Systems » Mining » Thermal Power Plants
harmonized » Air Pollution Control » Fire Fighting Equipment » Photovoltaic Equipment » Thermo Process Technology
information models » Automated Guided Vehicles » Fluid Power » Plastics & Rubber Machinery » Valves
» Battery Production » Food Processing and » Power Transmission » Waste Treatment & Recycling
» Building Control and Packaging Machinery Engineering » Weighing Technology
Management » Foundry Machinery » Precision Tools » Welding & Pressure Gas
» Building Materials » Glass Machinery » Printing & Paper Technology Equipment
Domain specific » Ceramic Machinery » Hydro Power Plants » Process Plant & Equipment » Wind Power Plants
harmonized » Cleaning Systems » Industrial Trucks » Productronic » Woodworking Machinery
information models » Compressors, Compressed Air » Integrated Assembly Solutions » Pumps & Systems
and Vacuum Technology
» Intralogistic Systems » Refrigeration & Heat Pump
» Construction Equipment Technology
» Length Measurement OPC UA CS released
» Continuous Conveyors Technology » Robotics Release Candidate
Meshed » Cranes » Lifts & Escalators » Security Systems Joint Working Group
communication » Die & Mould » Machine Tools and » Software & Digitalization with OPC Foundation
network » Drying Technology Manufacturing Systems
» Surface Technology OPC UA CS in work
» Electrical Automation » Machine Vision Aware of OPC UA
» Testing Technology
» Electronics, Micro & Nano » Metallurgical Plants and » Textile Care, Fabric and
Proprietary Technologies Rolling Mills Leather Technology
communication
COLLABORATIONS 43
MES MES
Line control
Line status
Main extruder Co extruder Die Haul-off … Main extruder Co extruder Die Haul-off …
Modular concept of OPC 40084: Using separate information models for the different components allows direct and indirect communication
COLLABORATIONS 45
physical quantities
(e.g. visible light, IR, X-Ray, sound waves)
46 COLLABORATIONS
OPC UA promotes collaboration among the indus- default values for Parameters, Methods, Actions and
try’s best domain experts to define information mod- Functional Groups including user interface elements.
els. For example, OPC Foundation and FieldComm
Group collaborated to define an information model ONLINE/OFFLINE CONFIGURATION
that forms the core of FDI technology (IEC 62769-5). MODELING
FDI technology includes i) virtualized field device in- Management of the Device Topology is a configura-
formation models encapsulated in a standardized tion task, i.e., the elements in the topology (Devices,
open packaging convention, the “FDI Device Pack- Networks, and Connection Points) are usually con-
age”; ii) an FDI Server with information about Device figured “offline” and – at a later time – will be validat-
instances and Device types; and FDI Clients that ac- ed against their physical representative in a real net-
cess information from the server. This information is work.
provided via OPC UA Services and is called the FDI
Information Model. EDDL MAPPING
The FDI standard has been endorsed by Industrie The OPC UA Object Model provides a standard way
4.0 and NAMUR for inclusion in future process auto- for Servers to represent Objects to Clients. EDDL de-
mation systems and field devices. fines a set of language constructs that are used to
describe industrial field devices. EDD information
MAJOR ELEMENTS OF THE FDI adds semantic contents to the raw data values read
INFORMATION MODEL from and written to the field devices.
TOPOLOGY INFORMATION The FDI OPC UA information model describes the
The Process Automation Device Information Model correspondence between the OPC UA Object Model
(PA-DIM) represents the devices of the automation elements and the EDDL elements when an EDD is
system as well as the connecting communication used to populate the FDI Server with Objects.
networks.
USER INTERFACE ELEMENTS
PROTOCOL TYPE AND DEVICE TYPE Both descriptive user interface elements (UIDs), anal-
DEFINITIONS ogous to EDD interfaces, and programmed (execut-
Topology is organized in the OPC address space us- able) user interface elements (UIPs), as specified in
ing Type definitions. For example, ProtocolType = the FDI standard, are supported in the information
HART. Type definitions contain the Parameters, and model.
COLLABORATIONS 47
Offshore Oil & Gas: OPC 30020 – OPC UA for Subsea (MCS and DCS) – MDIS
»OPEN-SCS
Open Serialization Communication Standard«
Marcel de Grutter, Executive Director: Open Serialization Communication Standard Group (OPEN-SCS)
The OPEN-SCS initiative is driven by leading health- cine becomes uniquely marked. In combination with
care providers, packaging and automation compa- a tamper-proof seal on the package the integrity of
nies, with the goal to define and standardize the pro- the original content is insured.
Further information at: vision of global unique serial number on prescription On the packaging line the single pack are first
https://www.open-scs.org/ medicine. Different national regulations enforce the grouped to bundles, and these bundles are boxed
implementation of secure serialization and transpar- into cases, which finally are stapled on pallets. The
MEMBERS: ent identification to prevent illegal trading of poten- informational data is aggregated over multiple, hier-
tially lethal, counterfeit medicine. OPEN-SCS stan- archical layers and becomes the input of a global
Abbott dardizes the serialization data objects and required database (digital twin). The medicine can be verified
ACG data exchanges for product Track & Trace use cases in all packaging formats and at every point in the
Advanco for interplant, packaging line, and equipment unit lev- supply chain, especially at its end, at the point of dis-
Antares Vision els. pense, for its originality and origin. According to the
Arvato Sytems OPC UA communication technology allows vendor information models of ISA-95 (Enterprise Control)
facilityboss independent, secure transmission of structured seri- and ISA-88 (Batch Control) the Object Types and
NNIT alization information into production and packaging Methods are standardized using OPC UA technolo-
Laetus systems. By adding product- and production-specif- gy and are published in the companion specification
Mettler Toledo PCE ic information (GTIN, expiry date, batch number) to a for OPEN-SCS.
Optel Group data matrix code printed on the package, the medi-
Pfizer
Roche
Rockwell
SICPA
Systech International Supply Chain Goods, Regulations, GTIN
Tracelink Partners, Customers
Traxeed
Uhlmann ISA-95 – Level 4 SerialNumber Repository GS1 – EPICS
Enterprise
Verifarma
Werum
WIPOTEC-OCS ISA-95 – Level 3 Site System Standard Interface
Site Operation wt OPC UA
Serialnumber n…1 Bundle Code n…1 Case Label n…1 Pallet Code
The HKI Industrial Association for House, Heating The developed OPC UA Companion-Specification
and Kitchen Technology represents the interests of “OPC 30200 OPC UA for Commercial Kitchen
manufacturers of commercial kitchen equipment as Equipment” lays the foundation for a data exchange
Further information at: well as those of domestic heating and cooking appli- that is manufacturer-neutral and cross-device. The
http://hki-online.de/en ances. Under the umbrella of the HKI Industrial As- standardization creates the basis for non-proprietary
sociation about 50 different companies have worked communication protocols in the industrial kitchen
together to develop a uniform and standardized sector. This results in a multitude of application pos-
communication interface for catering equipment. sibilities that bring added value for the operator of
The design of the standardized communication inter- industrial kitchens like:
face is based on the industrial communication stan- ➞ Documentation and archiving of time and
dard of OPC-UA. The working group communication temperature curves
interface of the HKI Industrial Association developed ➞ Monitoring and visualization of processes
the information models for a large number of different ➞ Transmission of error and alarm function
catering equipment. The graphic [...] shows which ➞ Remote service
catering equipment was modelled.
Device Type
Device Class
Ice Machine
50 OPC UA SOLUTIONS
If we regard some of the basic concepts of Industrie the PLC to other process devices as OPC UA
4.0, such as platform and vendor-independent com- clients, whilst at the same time being able to respond
munication, data security, standardization, decen- to their requests or to requests from higher-level
tralized intelligence and engineering, then a technol- systems (SCADA, MES, ERP) as OPC UA servers.
ogy for M2M (Machine-to-Machine) or IoT (Internet of The devices are connected by wireless router: a
Things) applications is already available in OPC UA. physical interruption of the connection does not lead
OPC UA is used for direct M2M communication be- to a loss of information, since information is auto-
tween plants for the intelligent networking of decen- matically buffered in the OPC UA server for a time
tralized, independently acting, very small embedded and can be retrieved as soon as the connection has
controllers, i.e. around 300 potable water plants and been restored – a very important property in which a
300 wastewater plants (pumping plants, water great deal of proprietary engineering effort was in-
works, elevated reservoirs, etc.) distributed over vested beforehand. The authentication, signing and
about 1,400 km²: encryption safety mechanisms integrated in OPC UA
Real objects (e.g. a pump) were modeled in the were used in addition to a closed mobile radio group
IEC61131-3 PLC as complex objects with interactive to ensure the integrity of these partly sensitive data.
possibilities; thanks to the OPC UA server integrated The vendor-independent interoperability standard
Filling Closed OK, I power in the controller these objects are automatically avail- OPC UA opens up the possibility for us as end users
level reached! user group down!
able to the outside world as complex data structures to subordinate the selection of a target platform for
for semantic interoperability. the demanded technology in order to avoid the use
The result is decentralized intelligence that makes of proprietary products or products that don‘t meet
decisions independently and transmits information to the requirements.
its neighbors or queries statuses and process values The replacement of a proprietary solution by a com-
for its own process in order to ensure a trouble-free bined OPC UA client/server solution, for example,
process cycle. provided us with a saving on the initial licensing costs
With the standardized PLCopen function blocks the of more than 90 % per device.
Drinking Closed All OK!
devices independently initiate communication from
water quality? user group
All OK!
Closed
user group
OPC UA SOLUTIONS 51
“… due to the use of OPC UA as a standard in- Beside the indication of the statuses of the various
terface to the infrastructure subsystems we electromechanical systems, also the locations of
ETM professional control GmbH – can guarantee this.” trains within the Gotthard Base Tunnel alongside ad-
A Siemens Company The Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland is by his ditional information are displayed. All of these sys-
opening in June, 2016 with 57 km the longest rail- tems are managed by the overriding tunnel manage-
way tunnel of the world. ment system on the basis of the SCADA system
OPC UA was defined as the standardized interface SIMATIC WinCC Open Architecture. The entire infra-
between the tunnel management system and the structure is displayed, monitored and operated at
electromechanical systems. Given the need to inte- two Tunnel Control Centers, one at the North and the
grate sixteen different facilities from different suppli- other at the South Portal.
ers, it was vital to use a platform-neutral, standard-
ized and uniform protocol. REASONS FOR OPC UA IN THE GOTTHARD
The tunnel management system is responsible for en- BASE TUNNEL
suring the remote control and monitoring of relevant ➞ High availability of the communication
data points across the electromechanical systems. – Redundant configuration set up both for the
Using the information being constantly supplied from OPC UA client and server
the infrastructure subsystems, encompassing power – OPC UA Heartbeat used for monitoring the
supply, catenary system, ventilation and air condi- connection in both directions
tioning, lighting as well as operation and surveillance ➞ Reliable data exchange
of wide-ranging different doors and gates, a graphic – Authentication and authorization both on the
system overview is prepared. server and the client side
– Security based on current standards (SSL/TLS
specification)
– Use of standardized X.509 certificates
– Same certificates also used in IT for safeguard-
ing the https connections
– Use of a standardized infrastructure (CA)
– Secured OPC UA due to encryption and a digi-
tal signature
– Simple configuration of the firewall (only one
port needed)
➞ High performance
– Several hundred thousand data points
– Use of the binary protocol (OPC UA Binary, UA
TCP)
– Binary protocol requires few overheads
– Consumes minimal resources
– Offers outstanding interoperability
OPC UA SOLUTIONS 53
Smart Metering: Consumption information from the meter right up to IT accounting systems
“A safe and reliable communication protocol plays Communication protocols are transferred in encrypt-
an important role in smart metering”, says Carsten ed form with respect to gas meters. This means:
Lorenz, AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) Manager at Personal data and critical commands, such as clos-
Honeywell, a leading supplier of smart meter prod- ing and opening of a valve integrated in the meter,
ucts for gas, water and electricity. Our UMI (Universal are not visible for third parties and cannot be inter-
Metering Interface) protocol ensures optimum ener- cepted or simulated.
gy efficiency and long battery life in networks. The communication protocols support both asym-
At Honeywell, we offer a software with OPC UA inter- metric and symmetric state-of-the-art encryption
face for our own systems as well as other head-end methods, such as the Advanced Encryption Stan-
systems, since many systems used by supply com- dard (AES). AES encryption is approved in the United
panies already support this established standard. States for government documents with maximum
Integrated encryption of sensitive meter data is an security classification.
important argument for OPC UA“. Smart Metering is the precursor for the energy in-
Security and encryption of personal data is a MUST frastructure of the future. Transparent online display
when Smart Metering is introduced. This means: of consumption data offers customers the option to
Corresponding security concepts have to be intro- optimize their energy consumption and utilize flexible
duced together with Smart Metering in existing and tariffs based on their device and energy mix.
new systems. They have to take account of new pro-
cesses such as exchange of encryption mechanisms
between manufacturers and energy suppliers.
SSL
Remote API
Meter Data
Elster Open Meter Data Management
Collection Engine
Internet
Billing
Management
OPC-UA API
Asset
Management
APN etc.
GSM / GPRS
54 OPC UA SOLUTIONS
The product itself determines the way it should be tent data transfer, even for complex structures. The
produced. Ideally this enables flexible production wi- MES system receives the QM specifications via or-
thout the need for manual setting up. Elster has suc- ders from the ERP and reports the finished products
cessfully implemented this Industrie 4.0 concept in back to the ERP. In future, intelligent products with
productive assembly lines. their own data storage will offer the prospect of ex-
A key factor is the seamless integration between changing much more than just a shopfloor control
shop floor, MES and ERP based on OPC UA. At number with the plant. It is conceivable to load e.g.
each step the product is identified through its unique work schedules, parameters and quality limits onto
shopfloor control number (SFC). OPC UA enables the product, in order to enable autonomous and in-
the plant control system to be coupled directly with dividualized production.
the MES system, so that flexible procedures and in- Vertical integration is therefore not a one-way street,
dividual quality checks can be realized in one-piece but a closed loop. One important aspect in the In-
flow mode. Without any additional effort, PLC varia- dustrie 4.0 has already been settled in practice: The
bles are published as OPC tags, and simply mapped communication between product and plant will take
to the MES interface. This enables fast and consis- place via OPC UA.
SAP ERP
SAP
Manufacturing
Execution
– Validate SFC: determine next operation,
status “released” or “scrap” …
SAP Plant – Validate resource: status “available” or “unscheduled down” ...
Connectivity
(PCo) Validate
SFC and
Send
“StartResponse”
machine
– okay
– not okay/error-details
Additional
– user data
– site acquisition
– resource-id
– operation
– SFC
Execute
Roland Essmann, Elster GmbH
OK
process
OK
Read Start Analyze
SFC SFC response
Web service
NOK
“Start” NOK Error
handling
OPC UA SOLUTIONS 55
OPC UA is an essential foundation for the conver- not designed to have these capabilities built-in. The
gence of OT and IT, providing the most popular open cloud enables globally available, industry-specific
and standardized data modeling for industrial equip- Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that are cost-
ment. From an IT perspective, OPC UA is the pro- prohibitive to stand up for each industrial facility on
gramming interface of the connected plant and the its own.
connected factory and a critical enabler for Industrial As customers and partners collaborate to modernize
Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. their plants and factories, OPC UA is enabling digital
OPC UA also serves as a gateway technology to se- transformation simply and easily. Microsoft’s leading
curely cloud-enable industrial equipment, enabling support of OPC UA will reduce barriers to IoT adop-
data and device management, insights, and ma- tion and help deliver immediate value.
chine learning capabilities for equipment that was
Firewall
IoT Hub
OPC UA
IoT Edge
Client/Server
Methods/Proper?es
OPC UA PubSub
Connected Factory Solution Accelerator:
(JSON over AMQP/MQTT)
Presentation & Business Connections
OEE, KPIs calculation
OPC UA
OPC Twin Module Alarms, Events & Telemetry based on OPC UA Information Model
Client/Server
Cloud-based Device Management
Industrial Devices
PLC
Protocol
OPC UA
Client/Server
OPC UA PubSub
Azure Edge Analytics, OPC UA PubSub
(JSON over AMQP/MQTT)
Azure ML on Edge, (JSON over AMQP/MQTT)
OPC UA PubSub
Azure Functions,
(JSON over AMQP/MQTT)
OPC Publisher Module Azure Edge Hub
Cold Path Analytics, ML, Functions & Storage:
Azure Machine Learning, Azure Data Lake, Azure CosmosDB Graph, Dynamics, Notification Hubs
Azure IoT Edge Azure IoT Hub …
On-‐Premises: Machine Interoperability
Azure Cloud: Data Inges?on & Processing, Command & Control
Azure Cloud: Presenta?on
56
HEADQUARTERS / USA
OPC Foundation
16101 N. 82nd Street
Suite 3B
Scottsdale, AZ 85260-1868
Phone: (1) 480 483-6644
office@opcfoundation.org
OPC EUROPE
Huelshorstweg 30
33415 Verl
Germany
opceurope@opcfoundation.org
OPC JAPAN
c/o Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd
2-16-3 Konan Minato-ku, Tokyo
1080075 Japan
opcjapan@microsoft.com
OPC KOREA
c/o KETI
22, Daewangpangyo-ro 712,
Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do
13488 South Korea
opckorea@opcfoundation.org
OPC CHINA
B-8, Zizhuyuan Road 116,
Jiahao International Center, Haidian District,
Beijing, P.R.C
P.R.China
opcchina@opcfoundation.org
V10 www.opcfoundation.org