What is OPC DA and UA?

Summary of the Article: What is OPC DA and UA?

To transfer data through routers and firewalls, OPC DA required the use of middleware, while OPC UA works without this medium. The OPC UA specification includes several parts that describe the logic of the operation of servers and clients. A detailed version of the specification is available in the IEC 62541 standard.

1. What is OPC UA stand for?
OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is a machine-to-machine communication protocol used for industrial automation and developed by the OPC Foundation.

2. What is the difference between OPC DCOM and OPC UA?
In Classic OPC, developers must use Access Control lists stored in DCOM settings to configure the security settings for each component. In contrast, OPC UA uses standard web technologies as a security foundation including both authentication and encryption capabilities to protect data.

3. How does OPC DA work?
The OPC server is an executable component that you install on your local PC. Whenever you establish a connection between an OPC DA client and a controller, the OPC server is started automatically. It provides information to the OPC DA client about variable values or states that have changed.

4. What does OPC stand for?
Open Platform Communications (OPC) is an interoperability standard for the secure exchange of industrial automation data. It is designed to be platform-dependent so devices from different vendors can exchange information.

5. Why is OPC server used?
One application acts as the server providing data, and the other as a client using data. OPC is an industrial communication standard that enables data exchange between multi-vendor devices and control applications without proprietary restrictions.

6. What is a DA server?
OPC Data Access servers (DA servers) provide data from different data sources (for example, process control systems) that an OPC client (for example, SAP ODA) can read. At the same time, DA servers can receive data from an OPC client and process it.

7. What are the pros and cons of OPC UA?
It is firewall-friendly and supports session encryption, authentication, user control, message signing, user session auditing, and other features addressing security concerns. Some of the disadvantages of OPC UA are overcomplexity and issues with enabling full interoperability of the systems.

8. What are the two types of OPC?
They are: OPC Limited by Shares and OPC Limited by Guarantee with Share Capital.

9. What is the major advantage of OPC UA?
It enables smart manufacturing and contributes to the reduction of complexity in communication between devices and machinery, thus improving the overall efficiency of plants. It can accommodate legacy systems, new machinery, and product lines with ease. It is cross-platform.

10. What does OPC mean in a job?
The Agency/Organization Program Coordinator (A/OPC) is the primary liaison between you and the bank.

11. How does OPC UA communication work?
S: As an OPC UA client, the controller pushes the data to the server using the Publish-Subscribe pattern. The server then makes the data available to other OPC UA clients who have subscribed to it. The communication is secure and can be done over different transport protocols like TCP/IP or HTTPS.