OPC-UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is a communication standard for exchanging data between different devices and systems. Perfectly suited to modern manufacturing environments and Industry 4.0, this protocol offers a robust solution for exchanging large amounts of data, thus boosting the interoperability, security and upgradability of the systems involved.
Indatech’s READY software products can exchange data in real time with PLCs (such as SIPAT (Siemens) or SynTQ (Optimal Industrial Technologies – Bruker)) via this communication protocol. The major advantage of OPC-UA over traditional supervision protocols (such as Modbus TCP, etc.) is that communication takes place through open sessions between clients and servers, secured by the popular SSL protocol. OPC-UA supports several communication models, including the PUB-SUB (Publisher-Subscriber) model, which is particularly suitable for environments requiring real-time data transmission and efficient event management.
In Indatech’s software, such as Viserion, MxViserion, Asuryan and SRS Ready, the PUB-SUB model is used so that users can connect to this server to configure and perform measurements without the need for an operator using the supervision software. The server updates information such as data collection and then makes it available to clients for reading. This allows one machine with clients to connect to multiple servers and eliminates the need to use multiple software products to collect a chain of measurements from interested parts of a process. It also allows synchronized data collection from various parts of the process.
One of the strengths of OPC-UA is the management of secure exchanges through the use of digital certificates. This functionality is essential to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of the data exchanged between OPC-UA servers and clients. Security certificates are used for server and client authentication to ensure that only authorized entities can access data or control equipment. The certificates are issued by a Certification Authority (CA) and are used to establish a secure connection based on protocols such as TLS/SSL (Transport Layer Security / Secure Sockets Layer). In Indatech’s solutions, we use these certificates to secure OPC-UA connections, in order to guarantee that the data flows between the instruments and the supervision systems are protected against any risk of cyberattack.