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How does OPC UA improve industrial IoT communication?

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Industrial IoT (IIoT) refers to the use of connected devices, sensors, and data analytics in various sectors such as manufacturing, energy, transportation, and agriculture. IIoT can improve efficiency, productivity, quality, and safety, but it also poses challenges for communication and interoperability among diverse systems and platforms. OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is a standard that aims to address these challenges and enable secure, reliable, and scalable IIoT communication. In this article, you will learn how OPC UA works, what benefits it offers, and how it compares to other IIoT standards.

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David Joy

Master Technologist - Industrial IoT, Data Pipelines and AI/ML Systems

1 What is OPC UA?

OPC UA is a platform-independent, service-oriented architecture that defines a set of protocols, data models, and security mechanisms for exchanging information between different devices, applications, and systems in the industrial domain. OPC UA is based on the OPC Classic standard, which was developed in the 1990s to facilitate communication between Windows-based systems using COM/DCOM technology. OPC UA extends and enhances OPC Classic by supporting multiple operating systems, network protocols, data formats, and security features. OPC UA also allows for semantic interoperability, meaning that it can represent and exchange not only data values, but also metadata, structures, and relationships.

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Gavin Knight
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The chief advantage I have found is semantic interoperability. I started using OPC UA to gain access to an existing library for camera control, but as the project proceeded, I found myself standardising on the OPC UA approach for other elements of hardware control. As a result, I ended up with a system where customising a specific implementation to a new PLC or low cost IoT focussed SBC at a customer's request became something a technician could achieve during deployment rather than requiring extensive rework of the entire control application.

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2 How does OPC UA work?

OPC UA works by establishing a client-server or a publisher-subscriber communication model between the nodes that participate in the information exchange. A node can be any entity that has an OPC UA address, such as a device, a sensor, an application, or a service. A node can also have attributes, methods, and references that define its properties, functions, and connections to other nodes. OPC UA organizes the nodes and their information in a hierarchical structure called the Address Space, which can be accessed and manipulated by the clients or subscribers. OPC UA also defines a set of services that enable the nodes to perform operations such as discovery, session management, subscription, read, write, call, browse, and query.

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3 What are the benefits of OPC UA?

OPC UA offers many advantages for IIoT communication, such as platform independence, security, scalability, and interoperability. It can run on any operating system or hardware platform, and use any network protocol and data format. Furthermore, it provides end-to-end security for communication channels and data with encryption, authentication, authorization, and auditing mechanisms. OPC UA also supports large volumes of data and complex information models, as well as various communication patterns and architectures. Additionally, it can integrate with other standards and protocols such as MQTT, AMQP, CoAP, and REST. Moreover, it enables semantic interoperability by using common data models and ontologies like OPC UA Companion Specifications.

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4 How does OPC UA compare to other IIoT standards?

OPC UA is not the only standard that facilitates IIoT communication; there are other standards and protocols with different features, strengths, and limitations. MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight, publish-subscribe protocol that is widely used for IIoT communication, but does not define the data format, structure, or semantics. AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) is a binary, peer-to-peer protocol that supports reliable, secure, and transactional messaging between applications and systems. However, it is more complex and resource-intensive than MQTT. CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) is a web-based protocol that enables RESTful communication between resource-constrained devices and systems, but may face compatibility issues with HTTP-based systems. REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style that defines how web resources can be accessed and manipulated using HTTP methods. OPC UA can complement these standards and protocols based on the use case and requirements; for instance, it can use MQTT or AMQP as the underlying transport protocol or CoAP or REST as the web interface while providing data model, semantics, and security features.

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Gavin Knight
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Using MQTT or AMQP as transport protocols for OPC UA comes at a significant cost in terms of message size and this will have a significant impact on application performance under some circumstances. It's important to model the system architecture as a whole when deciding which approach to take.

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5 How can you use OPC UA for IIoT communication?

To use OPC UA for IIoT communication, you need to have an OPC UA server and an OPC UA client or subscriber. The OPC UA server is the node that exposes the information in the Address Space and provides the services for the communication. The OPC UA client or subscriber is the node that requests or receives the information from the server. You can use various tools and frameworks to implement OPC UA servers and clients, such as open source libraries, software development kits, or middleware solutions. You can also use OPC UA gateways or brokers to connect OPC UA nodes with other nodes that use different standards or protocols. You can find more information and resources about OPC UA on the official website of the OPC Foundation, the organization that develops and maintains the standard.

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David Joy

Master Technologist - Industrial IoT, Data Pipelines and AI/ML Systems
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OPC UA is a great step forward in providing interoperability across Industrial Control Systems (ICS). Its rich feature set enables it to incorporate almost all, if not all, of the features of any proprietary industrial protocol. For simpler protocols, it can augment the feature set if desired. We have progressed significantly from the days when we attempted (in various degrees of success) to use Modbus as that interoperability enabler. That being said, as we move up the stack from the ICS level into the IIoT layer and beyond (into the business layers), OPC UA becomes unwieldy. Pruning the information and converting to MQTT at the boundary between the ICS and the IIoT layers above provide a leaner, more efficient alternative.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Gavin Knight
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It's a lot if boilerplate, and it's not an insignificant learning curve, but if flexibility and interoperability are key concerns, it is very well worth it.

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How does OPC UA improve industrial IoT communication?

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1 What is OPC UA?

2 How does OPC UA work?

3 What are the benefits of OPC UA?

4 How does OPC UA compare to other IIoT standards?

5 How can you use OPC UA for IIoT communication?

6 Here’s what else to consider

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