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OPC UA - Introduction

This document provides an overview of OLE for Process Control (OPC) and its evolution. It discusses the history of OPC and its original goals of providing a standard interface for automation data on Windows systems. It describes the classic OPC specifications of Data Access, Alarms & Events, and Historical Data Access. It also discusses early attempts at a platform-independent version called OPC XML that used web technologies but had performance issues. Finally, it introduces OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) as a true replacement for COM-based OPC that is platform-independent and can be used across industries from embedded systems to ERP.

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Muhammad Fuady
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366 views7 pages

OPC UA - Introduction

This document provides an overview of OLE for Process Control (OPC) and its evolution. It discusses the history of OPC and its original goals of providing a standard interface for automation data on Windows systems. It describes the classic OPC specifications of Data Access, Alarms & Events, and Historical Data Access. It also discusses early attempts at a platform-independent version called OPC XML that used web technologies but had performance issues. Finally, it introduces OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) as a true replacement for COM-based OPC that is platform-independent and can be used across industries from embedded systems to ERP.

Uploaded by

Muhammad Fuady
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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OLE for Process Control - Unified

Architecture

Muhammad Fuady Emzir

Department of System Engineering


King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
Dhahran, KSA

January, 2011
History OPC

▶ old DOS days =⇒ every application needed to write its


own printer drivers for all supported printers.
▶ Windows solved the printer driver problem by
incorporating printer support into OS.
▶ Founded in 1995
▶ Goal =⇒ define a Plug & Play standard for device drivers
providing a standardized access to automation data on
Windows-based systems
▶ Using COM & DCOM
Classic OPC

1. Data Access (DA) =⇒ current process data


2. Alarm & Events (A&E) =⇒ interface for event-based
information
3. Historical Data Access (HDA) =⇒ archived data
Classic OPC

Figure: Typical Client Server use case with classic OPC


OPC XML - Next Generation

▶ 1st attempt of platform-independent OPC replacing


COM/DCOM with HTTP/SOAP & Web Service
technologies.
▶ OPC XML-DA designed for internet access & enterprise
integration
▶ Functionality reduced to some methods to exchange OPC
Data Access information
▶ High resource consumption + limited performance =⇒
not as successful as expected.
Motivation for OPC UA

▶ OPC Classic succesful adoption =⇒ even used in a lot of


areas where it was not designed for
▶ Many more areas want to use a standard like OPC but
are not able to use it because of the COM dependency
of OPC
▶ To create a true replacement for COM-based
specifications without losing any features or performance
▶ Cover all requirements for platform-independent system
interfaces with rich and extensible modeling capabilities
=⇒ from Embedded System to ERP
OPC UA Overview

Figure: The Foundation of OPC UA

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