OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is a platform-independent, service-oriented communication protocol designed for secure, reliable, and standardized data exchange between industrial systems.
It is widely adopted in automation, manufacturing, and process control to enable seamless communication between devices, PLCs, SCADA systems, and IT infrastructure.
Siemens integrated OPC-UA server:
Supported datatypes
| Data Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Numeric values | Int, Float, Byte, Short, Double,… |
| Text values | String, DateTime, Date,… |
| Bool | Bool |
| Collections | Array, List, Set, Bag,… |
| References | Reference |
| Objects | Object |
Security
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Basic Security | It is a more secure alternative to basic security that uses encryption and authentication to protect messages between clients and servers. |
| X.509 certificates | The most straightforward security feature that uses a username and password to authenticate clients to servers. |
| Transport Layer Security | Security protocol that encrypts all communication between clients and servers. |
| Message-based Security | Security feature that allows clients to authenticate to servers using their credentials. |
| User-to-User Security | A security feature that allows clients to connect to servers without providing any credentials. |
| Anonymous Auth. | Security feature that allows clients to connect to servers without providing any credentials. |