OPC Today and in the Future

Tom Burke - President and Executive Director, OPC Foundation

Jim Luth, Technical Director, OPC Foundation

OPC : Past, Present, & Future

Thomas Burke, OPC Foundation President

OPC Foundation

• International Industry Standard Organization – 400+ Member Companies / 40+ end-users Members– 2500+ Total Companies Build OPC Products = 15000+ Products

• The vision of OPC is to be the Foundation for interOperability– for moving information vertically from the factory floor through the

enterprise of multi-vendor systems (with stops in between…)– For moving information horizontally between devices on different

industrial networks from different vendors;– Not just data but information…….

• Reliable, Secure Integration is not an Option• Collaboration is key to pulling multiple “open” standards into

unified open platform architecture….

The Plant : a Complex Environment with many opportunities for standards for interoperability

• Complex Information Flows• Multi-vendor• Proprietary

Plant Servers

OtherComputingDevices

PLANT INFORMATION NETWORK - Ethernet

Area Servers PlantNetworkModules

NetworkGateway

NetworkGateway

CONTROL NETWORK

Subnetwork Gateway

ApplicationModule

HistoryModule

Personal ComputerNetwork Manager

Control Stations

ArchiveReplay Module

AdditionalCN Modules

Fiber Optics

NetworkInterfaceModuleOther Data

Hiway Boxes

MultifunctionController

ExtendedController

BasicController

AdvancedMultifunctionControllerLocalProcessors

Sub

netw

ork C

ON

TR

OL

NE

TW

OR

K

SmartineTransmitters

PLCGateway

OtherSubsystems

PLC

Logic Manager ProcessManager

AdvancedProcessManager

Transmitters

Control Network Extenders

• Asynchronous Processing• Multiple Interfaces• Mission Critical• How To Manage Changes?

sec

msec

1 sec

secs

min

hours

A standard object model and set of interfaces for applications and servers

Before OPC: With OPC:

DisplayApplication

TrendApplication

OPC OPC

DCSController

PLC

• reduce cost

• protect investment

• more choices

• increase productivity

• costly

• inefficient

• risky

InterOperability

Performance

ConnectivityApplication X ...

DCS ControllerPLC

Application Y

Custom interfaces Client and Server write to a standard

InterOperability

OPC Data Access Architecture

PLC

PLC

MES and/or HMI Applications(OPC Client) OPC Server

Software App provides

a linkage betweenOPC Client(s)and devices

Proprietary Messaging

OPC Data Access

OPC Market Acceptance

• Dramatic Market Acceptance & Growth• Clear business benefits & risk mitigation• Many vertical industry applications

Source: Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey A. Moore, HarperBusiness, 1995 pages 14 & 19

Innovators Early Adopters Early Majority Late Majority Laggards

Technology Visionaries Pragmatists Conservatives SkepticsEnthusiasts

Chasm

$

Time

Technology Life Cycle Curve

OPC

OPC UA

OPC – Functional Areas

Today’s Integration Challenges

• Numerous incompatible protocols• Complex configuration and maintenance• Islands of automation • Rigid infrastructure• Vulnerability to system and network failures • Security

Numerous Incompatible Protocols

CC-LinkCC-LinkTCPTCP

EthernetEthernet

HARTHART

OAGISOAGIS

DDEDDE

COMCOM

BAPIBAPI

DeviceNetDeviceNetProfiBusProfiBus

FieldBusFieldBus

OPC-DAOPC-DA

HTTPHTTP

WMIWMI

SOAPSOAP

OPC-A&EOPC-A&EDCOMDCOM

802.1x802.1x

802.11802.11

IPv4IPv4UDPUDP

CANCAN

RS-232RS-232

IPv6IPv6

IPXIPX

OLEOLE

FTPFTP

OPC-HDAOPC-HDA

KerberosKerberos

J1939J1939

ModbusModbusFDIFDI

CANopenCANopenAS-IAS-I

InterbusInterbus

IndustrialIndustrialEthernetEthernet

ControlNetControlNet

DeviceLogixDeviceLogixDHCPDHCP

DNSDNS

XMLXML

BluetoothBluetoothLonworksLonworks

FIPIOFIPIO

FirewireFirewire

USBUSBRS-423RS-423

RS-485RS-485RS-422RS-422

IPsecIPsec

netDDEnetDDE

802.3802.3 V.35V.35

RARPRARP

ARPARP

ICMPICMP

EBCDICEBCDIC

ANSIANSI

CORBACORBA

.NET Remoting.NET Remoting

SNMPSNMP

UNICODEUNICODE

Numerous Incompatible Tiers

Equipment

Equipment

sensors

sensors

transmitters

transmitters

valvesvalves

fieldfieldnetworks

networks

NCNCmachines

machines

robotsrobots

Station

Station

continuous

continuouscontrollers

controllers

batchbatchcontrollers

controllers

NCNCcontrollers

controllersdiscrete

discretecontrollers

controllersprocess

processmonitoring

monitoringCellCell

cellcellcontrollers

controllersHMIHMIDCS

DCS

operator

operatorinterfaces

interfacesSection/Area

Section/Area

material

materialdispatch

dispatch

performance

performance

measurement

measurement

SCADA

SCADA

qualityquality

systems

systems

production

productionplanning

planning

process

processhistory

historyareaarea

controllers

controllers

Facility/Plant

Facility/Plant

timetimeand

andattendance

attendancemaintenance

maintenance

management

management

resource

resourcemanagement

management

product

productgenealogy

genealogy

WIPWIPtracking

trackingPDMPDM

production

productionplanning

planning

Enterprise

Enterprise

ERPERP

CRMCRM

SCPSCP

SCESCE

PLMPLM

R&DR&D

OPC Unified Architecture Motivation

OPC-UA

DCOMretires

.NETnew

Communicationarchitecture

Better

Integration(DA, HDA, AE)

More Areas of

Application(MES, ERP)

Internet

ServiceOriented

OPC Unified Architecture

• Web Services / XML• Easy Configuration and Maintenance• Increased Visibility• Broader Scope• Reliability• Security• Performance• Platform Neutrality• Legacy Products Plug Right In…

OPC Unified Architecture Base

• Architecture– Integration of DA, A&E, Commands, Complex Data, and Object Types

• Designed for Federation– abstract data/ information from the plant floor, through information models, and up to

enterprise systems • Information Modeling

– development and deployment of standard information models to address industry domains specifics

• Complex Data– OPC Standard & Domain & vendor specific…..

OPC Unified Architecture Base

• Security– Collaboration, Development & Reference

• Enterprise Integration– OPC UA standard messaging system

• Robustness / Reliability Designed & Built in….– NO Failures– Sequence numbers, keep-alives, resyncing, and support for redundancy

• Commands• Companion Standards

– industry groups define what OPC Unified Architecture “transports”

Unified Architecture Evolution

SCADASCADAHMI Visualization

HMI Visualization

AssetManagement

AssetManagement PurchasingPurchasing

ProductionManagement

Systems

ProductionManagement

Systems

InventoryManagement

InventoryManagement

ProductionControl

ProductionControl

The Automationparadigm

The Automationparadigm

The Enterpriseparadigm

The Enterpriseparadigm

OPC Unified Architecture

Device Integration(FF, Profibus, HART, etc)

Subsystem Integration

P

L

P

L

P

L

P

L

APPLICATIONPACKAGES

MIS

Dev

ice

Dat

a Configuration

Enterprise Integration(ERP, Asset Management,Advanced Diagnostics, etc.)

Open Standards to Deliver Interoperability

Device to Device and Device to the Enterprise

OPC Provides Industry-Standard interOperability, Productivity & Collaboration

BatchBatch

OPC Unified Architecture OPC Unified Architecture

Manufacturing, Production and MaintenanceManufacturing, Production and Maintenance

OP

C

OP

C

Adv.Adv.ControlControl

OP

C

OP

C

HMIHMI SCADASCADA

PC-Based ControlPC-Based Control

MESMES

OPC OPC

OPCOPC

Industrial NetworksIndustrial Networks DataAcquisition

DataAcquisition

PLCDCS

PLCDCS ??.......????.......??

ERP, SAP … Corporate EnterpriseERP, SAP … Corporate Enterprise

OPC Unified Architecture OPC Unified Architecture

OPC Unified Architecture

Jim Luth, OPC Technical Director

OPC-UA Fundamentals

• Based on standards for the Web– XML, WSDL, SOAP, WS-*

• WS-Policy negotiates protocol and encoding• WS-SecureConversation provides secured sessions• Optimized for the Intranet

– OPC Binary encoding over TCP

• SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)

• Single set of Services– Query, Read, Write, Subscribe…

• Named/Typed relationships between nodes.

OPC Interface Unification

Historical Data

Access

Alarms&

Events

ComplexData

Commands

DataAccess

The UA Server embodies the functionality of existing OPC Servers using a single set of services

UA ServerUA Server

Unified Object Model

OPC UA Object

Variables ___ ___ ___

Methods ___() ___() ___()

Events

Method Services Variable Services

Event Services

OPC DA and HDA OPC Commands

OPC A&E

OPC Subscriptions

OPC-UA Address Space

Root

Fieldbus Sensor Bus Areas

PressureXmitter

Valve Area 1

• Full Mesh – Network Model • Unlimited Named/Typed Relationships• “Views” are used to present hierarchies

Robustness

• Subscription Update Features– Keep-alive (heartbeat) messages

• Allows clients to detect a failed server or channel– Sequence Numbers in each update message

• Allows client re-sync to obtain missed messages– Decouples callback channel from notification mechanism,

allowing callback channel to be reset without loss of data• Redundancy Features

– Designed for easy (optional) redundancy of both Clients and Servers

• e.g. re-sync request can be sent to a backup server

Security

• UA Clients present credentials to UA Servers (x509 certs on both sides).

• UA Servers require authentication and authorization.– Access control can be fine-grained down

to the property level.• Optional message signing and

encryption.

Abstract UA ModelSpecification

WSDL / SOAPor TCP / Binary

Services Binding

Proxy /Stubs

API

Communication Layering

Tool orLanguageDependent(e.g. .NET)

Scalable Platform Independent Messaging Model

.NET (WCF) VersionPortable C/C++ VersionJava Version

Business Model, Adaptable to Platform Independent Messaging Models (e.g. WSDL)

OPC UA Base Services All Necessary Services

Specification Layering

Vendor Information Models

DA A&E HDA CMDs OPC Information Model

Information Model Specifications IEC, ISA, MIMOSA …

Clients written to just the base can still discover and access all data from the derived layers!

Scalability

• OPC UA “Server Profiles” defined to allow servers with different capability levels

• Client can discover server profile• Profiles and wrappers defined for migrating existing servers to UA• More capable profiles also defined

Server Diagnostics

• Standard “Server” node defined in address space• Standard diagnostic data items defined for the server, such as

“SubscriptionCount”• Server specific diagnostics can be added, with semantics defined by object

type definitions

UA Server Chaining

UAServer

UAClient

UAServer

UAClient

UAServer

UAServer

UAServer

UAClient

UAClient

UAClient

UAClient

Enterprise Network

Operations Network

Plant Floor Network

EnterpriseSemantics

ProcessSemantics

DeviceSemantics

“Aggregating” UA Servers extract and process data from lower level “Device” UA Servers.

Data is recast using different information models appropriate for the clients at the higher level.

“Aggregating” UA Servers extract and process data from lower level “Device” UA Servers.

Data is recast using different information models appropriate for the clients at the higher level.

OPC Address Space Today

Root

Fieldbus Sensor Bus Areas

PressureXmitter

Valve Area 1

• Pure Hierarchy • Parent/Child Relationships Only

Data Items and Alarms Today

Data Access Address Space Alarms & Events Address Space

Sensor Bus

Root

Field Bus

Valve Pressure Xmitter

Temp Xmitter

Current Value

Hi Limit

Lo Limit

Area 1 Area 2 Area 3

Pressure Xmitter

Valve Temp Xmitter

Root

Hi Alarm Lo Alarm

Clients must correlate the two temperature

transmitter nodes based on external knowledge

UA Coherent Address Space

Root

Field Bus

Sensor Bus

Areas

Pressure Xmitter

Temp Xmitter

Valve Area 1

Area 3

Area 2

Hi Limit Lo Limit

Lo Alarm Lo Alarm

Current Value

“Located In” reference

UA Coherent Address Space

Root

Field Bus

Sensor Bus

Areas

Pressure Xmitter

Temp Xmitter

Valve Area 1

Area 3

Area 2

Hi Limit Lo Limit

Lo Alarm Lo Alarm

Current Value

“Located In” reference

Integrated data and alarms

Other relation- ship such as “contained”, “operated by”, “controls”, etc.

Subclassing (Inheritance)

Data Type Reference

Instantiation (between layers)

Standard and System-defined

Data Type Definitions

Top Layer

Type Layer

Relationship Base Types

Instance Layer

Top Complex Data

Schema

Object Classes and Instances

Complex Data Features

• Tells clients how to parse structured data• Allows use of XML Schemas for describing XML data• Defines OPC Binary data description language that uses XML to describe

binary data structures • Allows client to access device specific data descriptions (e.g. Fieldbus

Foundation OD)

Methods vs. Programs

• Programs built on top of Methods• Programs represent executable components of objects ,

e.g.,– DownloadProgram(Name, InitState)– MonitorNetwork (From, Till, Interval)

• Execution time may vary from milliseconds to indefinitely.

• Asynchronous invocation is non-blocking. Results are returned using notifications.

• The client can control the execution.• Methods part of UA Base• Synchronous invocation similar to

blocking function calls.– AckAlarm()

Programs can have State

• UA defines the basic state machine.• State transitions may cause notifications.

Idle

ExecutingAbnormal

Failure

Completed

Halted(optional)

7

6

9

84

1

3 2

State Machine

2

Executing

Opening

Sending

Closing

3

• Sub-states can be defined in particular for the executing state.

Scalability

• OPC UA “Server Profiles” defined to allow servers with different capability levels

• Client can discover server profile• Profiles and wrappers defined for migrating existing servers to UA• More capable profiles also defined

Server Diagnostics

• Standard “Server” node defined in address space• Standard diagnostic data items defined for the server, such as

“SubscriptionCount”• Server specific diagnostics can be added, with semantics defined by object

type definitions

UA Services

• Common services support DA, A&E, and HDA operations• Protocol independence• Timeless durability• Integrated with the UA Data Model• Partitioned into Service Sets

UA Service Sets

• Secure Channel Service Set– Open & Close Channel, GetPolicies

• Session Service Set– Create, Close, Activate, ImpersonateUser

• Node Management Service Set– Add & Delete Objects and References

• View Service Set– Browse, BrowseNext

UA Service Sets (2)• Query Service Set

– QueryFirst, QueryNext

• Attribute Service Set– Read, Write, ReadHistory, UpdateHistory

• Method Service Set– Call

• Monitored Item Service Set– Create / Modify / Delete

• Subscription Service Set– Create / Modify / Delete, Publish, Republish

Putting it all together

Data Model

SOA Model

OPC OPC UAUA

Comms Model

Protocol Independent

Platform Independent

Plant floor and Internet

Access

DA, HDA, and A&E

Object Model

TypeDescriptions

Abstract Services

UA Programmers’ Interface

• Designed to provide an abstraction layer between the application developer and the SOAP stack/wire encoding

• Defined by UA to match the abstract specification instead of the WSDL

ProxyProxyClientClient StubStub ServerServerSOAPSOAP

Interoperability with UAPI

Client ApplicationClient Application

UA Programmers’ InterfaceUA Programmers’ Interface

WSE 2.0WSE 2.0 IndigoIndigo JavaJava UA TCPUA TCP

WSE 2.0WSE 2.0 IndigoIndigo JavaJava UA TCPUA TCP

UA Programmers’ InterfaceUA Programmers’ Interface

Server ApplicationServer Application

XMLXMLUA BinaryUA Binary UA BinaryUA BinaryIndigoIndigo

BinaryBinary XML

XML

UA Bin

ary

UA Bin

ary

WSE 2.0WSE 2.0 IndigoIndigo JavaJava UA TCPUA TCP

UA Programmers’ InterfaceUA Programmers’ Interface

UA Reference ServerUA Reference Server

UA Reference Server Extensibility InterfaceUA Reference Server Extensibility Interface

The UA SDK (II)

COMCOMWrapperWrapper

XML-DAXML-DAWrapperWrapper NativeNative VendorVendor

SpecificSpecific

UA –Enable all OPC COM Servers

• UA clients can instantly connect to hundreds of existing OPC COM Servers

UAUAClientClient

UAUAServerServer

WrapperWrapper

COMCOMDADA

ServerServerUAUA

SOAP over

HTTP or TCP

UA –Enable all OPC COM Clients

• Use the UA Client Proxy to connect existing COM clients to new UA Servers

UAUAClientClientProxyProxy

COMCOMDADA

ClientClient

UAUAServerServer

UAUASOAP over

HTTP or TCP

Disable Remote DCOM

• Use the UA proxy and wrapper to replace DCOM as remote communication protocol

UAUAClientClientProxyProxy

COMCOMDADA

ClientClient

UAUAServerServer

WrapperWrapper

COMCOMDADA

ServerServerUAUA

SOAP over

HTTP or TCP

Disable Remote DCOM

• Use the UA proxy and wrapper to replace DCOM as remote communication protocol

UAUAProxyProxy

COMCOMClientClient

UAUAWrapperWrapper

COMCOMServerServerUAUA

UA Committee UA Committee FormedFormedQ1/ 04Q1/ 04

Phase One Spec. Phase One Spec. Release Release Q2 / 06Q2 / 06

OPC Unified Architecture Roadmap

OPC Unified Architecture MilestonesOPC Unified Architecture Milestones

Architecture VisionArchitecture VisionQ4 / 03Q4 / 03

Implementation Sub-Implementation Sub-Committee FormedCommittee Formed

Q1 / 05Q1 / 05

Phase One Phase One Ref. ImplementationRef. Implementation

Q4 / 06Q4 / 06

Promote Phase One Promote Phase One WorldwideWorldwide

Q4 / 06Q4 / 06

OPC Unified Architecture Demo

The UA Proxy and Wrapper:Enhancing the past,

Connecting the future

Cross Industry Interoperability Strategy

• OPC used in process & discrete manufacturing• OPC adopted in the following:

– Semiconductor– Plant Maintenance and Production Management– Industrial Ethernet …..– Security– Building Controls– RFID– Retail/ Financial– ….

• Collaboration with MIMOSA• Collaboration with ISA (S88, S95, S99)• Collaboration with OAGi• Collaboration with IEC• Collaboration with MS MUG & NAMUR• Collaboration with …… (stay tuned)

OPC Vision• OPC Domains

– Automation (factory & process)– Building Controls– Security– Semi – Conductor– Financial / Retail– …..

• OPC is the “HOW” for moving “WHAT”• OPC Collaboration

– Industrial Ethernet, WS - *, IEC, ISA SP95, ISA SP88, ISA SP99, EDDL, OMAC, MS MUG, …

More Information …

Visit the UA ‘home’ page

http://www.opcfoundation.org/UA

F O U N D A T I O N

®

OPC Success

• Success is measured by level of adoption• OPC members’ participation

– Design, Build, and Deliver Products– Compliance / Interoperability Testing

• End-users demand certification

• Industry Endorsement • OPC is everywhere!