OPC unified architecture

Más información sobre el libro

The OPC Foundation provides specifications for data exchange in industrial automation, with a history rooted in COM/DCOM-based standards like OPC Data Access, OPC Alarms and Events, and OPC Historical Data Access. These standards are widely implemented across the industry. The Foundation has introduced a new generation of specifications known as OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), marking a shift from the aging COM/DCOM technology to a service-oriented architecture. OPC UA offers platform-independent data access via Web Services or a specialized TCP-based protocol. It consolidates previous specifications into a single address space that manages current data, alarms, events, and their historical records. A key feature of OPC UA is the Address Space Model, enabling vendors to create a rich, extensible information model using object-oriented techniques. This architecture is highly scalable, accommodating everything from intelligent devices and controllers to DCS, SCADA, MES, and ERP systems. It can provide information at varying levels of complexity, from basic data models akin to Classic OPC to sophisticated models that include extensive metadata and complex type hierarchies.