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OPC FOUNDATION – www.opcfoundation.org

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OPC Unified Architecture –Advantages and possibilities of use
for manufacturers and users ofautomation, IT or MES products
OPC UA➞ OPC Unified Architecture is thenew technology generation of theOPC Foundation for the secure,reliable and vendor-neutral transport of raw data and pre-processed information from the manufacturing level into the production
planning or ERP system. WithOPC UA, all desired information isavailable to every authorised application and every authorised person at any time and in any place.
This function is independent of themanufacturer from which the applications originate, the programming language in which they weredeveloped or the operating systemon which they are used. OPC UA
supplements the existing OPC
industry standard by importantcharacteristics such as platform
independence, scalability, highavailability and Internet capability.
OPC UA is no longer based on
DCOM, but has been conceived
on the basis of a service-oriented
architecture (SOA). OPC UA cantherefore be ported very easily.
Today, OPC UA already forms
the bridge between the Enterpriselevel down to embedded automation components – independent ofMicrosoft-, UNIX- or other operating systems. ■––––> 450 members
Platform-neutral
All areas of application
All connections

Productivity––––Standardised
communication
via Internet andvia firewalls
OPC UA uses an➞
optimized TCP-based UA
binary protocol for data exchange; Web Services andHTTP are additionally supported. It is sufficient toopen up just a single port ina firewall. Integrated security mechanisms ensure secure communication via theInternet.

Industry standard
Manufacturer-independent
Interoperability
Reliability

Collaboration––––––––

Device Integration
IEC 61131-3 / PLCopenAnalyzer Device Integration
ISA-95, ISA-88
MTConnect
Smard Grid
Field Device Integration
EDDL and FDT

ADDRESS:OPC Foundation
16101 N. 82nd Street
Suite 3B
Scottsdale, AZ 85260-1868
USACONTACT:OPC Unified Architecture – Standardised communication

Phone: (1) 480 483-6644
Fax: (1) 480 483-7202
office@opcfoundation.org
INFORMATION:PROTECTION AGAINST UNAUTHORISEDDATA ACCESS➞ The OPC UA technology uses a mature security
concept to ensure protection against unauthorised
access or sabotage of process data and as wellagainst errors due to careless operation. The OPC
UA security concept is based on World Wide Web
standards and encompasses options for user authentication, the signing of messages and the encryption of the transmitted user data.

DATA SECURITY AND RELIABILITY➞ OPC UA defines a robust architecture with reliablecommunication mechanisms, configurable timeouts,
automatic error detection and recovery mechanisms.
The communication connections between OPC UA
clients and servers can be monitored. OPC UA offers
redundancy features that can be applied to serverand client applications to prevent loss of data and toimplement highly available systems. ■www.opcfoundation.org

Security➞ X509 certificates➞ OpenSSL encryption➞ User / password➞	Access rights for each
attribute

COOPERATION:➞ PLCopen➞ ISA➞ MIMOSA
➞ FDT
➞ ECT

PLATFORM INDEPENDENCE ANDSCALABILITY➞ Due to the use of service-oriented basic technologies, OPC UA is platform-independent andenables the implementation of completely new,cost-saving automation concepts. Embedded
field devices, process control systems, programmable logic controllers, gateways or operator
panels can contain lean OPC UA server implementations, which can be ported directly to operating systems such as Windows Embedded,Linux, VxWorks, QNX, RTOS or others. A separate Windows PC for the OPC server, which up tonow has provided access to the data on devices

with non-Windows platforms, is no longer necessary. However, OPC UA components can also be
used in IT systems, in ERP systems, in production planning and control software and in other
eBusiness applications with Unix operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Solaris, HPUX, AIX and others. The functionality of OPC UAcomponents is scalable: from a lean implementation in embedded devices up to the maximumconfiguration in company-wide data administration systems on mainframe computers. ■Extended possibilities despite simplified interface –New OPC UA communication is fast, secure and flexible
on all platforms
SIMPLIFICATION BY UNIFICATION➞ OPC UA defines an integrated address space andan information model in which process data, alarms,
historical data and program calls can be represented. The items of information are defined as typed
objects, which can be placed in relationship to eachother. Beyond that, OPC UA supports the use ofcomplex data structures. This allows complex procedures and systems to be described completelywith OPC UA.
With Classic OPC three different OPC servers – DA,
AE and HDA – with different semantics are necessary in order, for example, to acquire the current
value of a temperature sensor, a high temperature
event and the historical average value of the temperature. This can be achieved very easily with OPC
UA in just one component. Configuration and engineering times can thus be significantly reduced.

MORE APPLICATION OPTIONS➞ The versatile usability of the OPC UA technology
enables the implementation of completely new vertical integration concepts. By cascading OPC UAcomponents, information can be transferred securely and reliably from the shop floor to the production
planning or ERP system. Embedded UA servers at
the field device level, UA components at automationlevel and integrated UA Clients in ERP systems at
Enterprise level can thereby be connected to one another. The respective UA components can be geographically distributed and easily separated from one
another by firewalls.
OPC UA offers standardisation organisations thepossibility to use UA services as a transport mechanism for their information models. Today, the OPC
Foundation cooperates with different standardisationgroups, such as PLCopen, ISA or ECT (EDDL Cooperation Team), on companion standards. ■STRONG PERFORMANCE➞ Through the development of its own, lean TCPbased UA binary protocol with efficient data coding,
OPC UA offers very efficient data transfer for the fulfillment of the highest performance requirements.

OPC UA – Platform independence and scalability

MORE INFORMATION

www.opcfoundation.org

PROTECTION OF INVESTMENT➞ OPC UA will replace Classic OPC in the long term.
In the mid term, however, DCOM-based OPC products and UA products can co-exist. The migration
strategy of the OPC Foundation enables the combination of Classic OPC and OPC UA products. In thisway the installed base of several thousand Classic

OPC products with millions of installations can beused from the beginning with the new OPC UA products. This gives the user advantages, because hecan use any desired products from different manufacturers – Classic OPC and OPC UA. ■