Industry 4.0 can help realize smart factories only by decentralized plant floors. As such the need for improved horizontal and vertical access to plant floor data is very important. Plant floor assets should be comprised of embedded systems that are inclined towards open data connectivity.
The scalability and security of OPC UA PubSub are what make it a perfect choice for your embedded systems. It makes the product truly “IoT ready”. From nano products to high-end controllers, OPC UA helps improve scalability in a secure environment.
Utthunga has a skilled team of certified OPC professionals to help you successfully harness this technology. Our range of services includes OPC UA in sensors, field devices, IO modules, controllers, machines, networking equipment, edge devices, and other equipment.
Why Embedded OPC UA Services are required for Industries?
There is a need to integrate industrial devices within a simple yet secure and scalable communication infrastructure, and OPC UA is an apt solution for this. As more industrial processes continue to be automated and are scaling towards the cloud, OPC UA makes the lower-level embedded systems shine bright. Embedded OPC UA PubSub makes the hardware assets natively connected and interoperable with other systems in the OT layer and also with the other production, enterprise, and cloud applications. The seamless and secure access to plant floor data can be leveraged for quick, intelligent decisions – in real-time or pro-actively based on deep analytics.
Embedded OPC UA Services Provided by Utthunga
Utthunga’s outstanding and highly proficient team works to deliver OPC UA embedded services that meet your needs. We specialize in the development of embedded OPC UA applications with client/server and publisher/subscriber communication model. We can cater to several embedded platforms with varying memory and resource constraints.
We support you technically from ground zero (that is, defining product requirements). Our expert team makes sure your product reaches the market with a certified OPC UA stack in your system. Our services include:
- OPC on field device, edge gateway
- OPC integration to PLC/PAC
- Sensor to cloud integration service
- PubSub module integration to OPC
- Prototyping and proof of concept projects
- Embedded memory footprint and performance measurements
- Preparation for certification of your embedded OPC UA implementations
- Annual maintenance packages and priority support for critical bug-fixes
Why Utthunga for Embedded OPC UA?
OPC UA server has specific capabilities that are described by the profiles that it supports. A profile indicates to other devices what specific features of the OPC UA specification are supported by it. Out of the four OPC UA profiles, the Nano Profile is the smallest profile, supporting only the minimum, core functionality required for small, embedded devices with no security. The Embedded Profile includes more capabilities than the Nano profile, while the Micro profile is a bit more comprehensive than the Nano profile.
Utthunga has OPC and Embedded experts who can understand your requirement to implement best-in-class OPC UA PubSubfor your embedded systems. We have deep expertise in embedded and RTOS development, and all the OPC UA Embedded profiles, with several implementations of our Nano profile embedded server already in the market.
We have more than a decade of in-depth experience in digitalizing field devices and systems, and we have built various complex industrial applications for data acquisition, storage, visualization and analysis. Essentially, we understand the complex industrial landscape very well and will be able to handhold you through any challenges and surprises. We can also assist with pre-compliance & certification.
FAQs
1. How can the OPC PubSub model upgrade your industrial networks?
OPC PubSub complements the OPC server client model. It simplifies how software runs on PLCs, HMIs and ERP systems. This approach decouples sources and consumers of data, which in turn creates an event-driven model. Implementing OPC PubSub therefore, means you are upgrading your system for better operational performance and identifying the problems at an early stage. PubSub is especially suited for embedded systems that don’t want to be overloaded with connection/data requests.
2. What is the OPC UA Nano Profile?
Nano profile is the smallest OPC UA profile targeted towards small resource-constrained embedded devices. It is designed to support only the essential functions to move data from the Nano server to an OPC UA client device.
3. In an embedded implementation, is there any limitations on the level of security allowed by the OPC UA standard?
We all know embedded device comes with limitation in memory and resources and that’ the challenging part right. To serve the needs, the OPC UA provides few profile like Nano, Micro, Embedded & Standard. Based on the security needs, resource\memory you can choose one among. In my view, max you can use embedded profile for super embedded device.
4. What’s the smallest footprint of the OPC stack for embedded devices?
Different stack implementations claim to have achieved different footprints mostly in terms of 10s of KBs.
5. Can web protocols like MQTT be integrated on embedded devices?
Yes, we can integrate the web protocols like MQTT on embedded devices. Please share your specific communication protocol requirements and we can suggest the best possible solution.
6. Can OPC be optimized for communication on constrained devices as a standalone protocol or working in conjunction with other protocols like PROFINET and EtherNet/IP?
The optimization approach is possible based on the requirements. If the primary requirement is to have a set of tags published frequently, the stack can be custom compiled to include only specific features that can fulfil the requirements.
Field devices with only OPC is happening. OPC PubSub specification helps in accelerating the adaptation. However, there are implementations that have OPC UA with other fieldbus protocols.
7. What is the Microcontroller memory and resource requirement to deploy an OPC client?
There is no single answer to this. It purely depends on all the different facets needed to enable in the stack for the client to meet the requirements.
For example, if you need security, you must port the OpenSSL or mbedTLS security stack also to the controller along with the OPC UA Client stack. Also, all the corresponding interfaces and wrappers shall be included in the OPC UA Client stack.
If you can share the target hardware configuration, constrains, stack details, application requirements etc., we can help you to come up with a base estimate required in terms of memory and the resources needed.
8. What is the latency factor in Embedded OPC UA devices?
There is no standard answer for this. It varies depending on several factors like hardware configuration, stack design & implementation, application, efficiency and the current state of network infrastructure. The smallest latency observed as of today is less than 50 micro seconds that is achieved through OPC UA PubSub over TSN.
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