Author: James Butcher IOTech Product Manager | Chairman of the EdgeX Foundry Technical Steering Committee
Unified OT data aggregation: How Edge Central’s new OPC UA Server technology is transforming SCADA integration at the edge
The latest release of IOTech’s Edge Central marks a significant advancement in industrial data management at the edge. As well as providing commercial support for the latest version of the EdgeX Foundry open-source software framework, Edge Central 3.1 now also includes OPC UA Server technology. Read on to find out how this exciting new feature will help businesses revolutionize how they can seamlessly extract data from their OT environments and easily utilize it in their industrial and SCADA systems.
First, what is OPC UA?
OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is an open and mature communication standard that is already extremely well used in industrial automation systems. It defines a protocol that enables clear and secure comms between a range of different devices and systems. It is an extremely rich specification and includes important standards for information and object models, and how that data should be accessed and mapped to other sources. Many industrial organizations, especially in sectors such as manufacturing, energy and automation, already use OPC UA to power their SCADA operations.
OPC UA Clients and Servers.
OPC UA is a Client/Server technology. An OPC UA Server is like a central hub made up of a number of OPC UA namespaces each with a number of OPC UA nodes that usually represent a physical device, machine or sensor on the factory floor. An OPC UA Client is a software artefact that can remotely access and monitor that data via the protocol standard.
Edge Central already provides an OPC UA Client in the form of a “southbound” Device Service, that can read and write data from an existing OPC UA Server. It enables Edge Central to collect and use OPC UA data that already resides in an OPC UA based system. One of the key benefits of Edge Central is how it can fuse that data with other data sources, e.g. devices that speak Modbus, BACnet, BLE, etc. See here the full list of connectors.
Adding OPC UA Server Capability to Edge Central
As well as the existing OPC UA Client functionality, Edge Central V3 now provides an OPC UA Server feature within the product. What does that mean? Well, it means that we are now also providing a “northbound” OPC UA interface that your own OPC UA Clients can call onto.
The main advantages of this new OPC UA Server capability are:
- Simplified data aggregation and management - all southbound OT data collected by the platform (Modbus, BACnet and so on) is aggregated into a single OPC UA Server namespace representing the underlying devices
- Seamless Integration with SCADA systems - industrial SCADA systems rely on real-time access to data for monitoring and controlling industrial processes. Here they can access all the aggregated OT data they need through this single OPC UA Server interface which greatly simplifies integration effort
- Data access and device control - the OPC UA Server provides bidirectional data flow which means SCADA systems and other OPC UA Clients can invoke write commands on the OPC UA nodes which, in turn via Edge Central, will actuate the real devices, e.g. adjust and improve operational behavior in real time.
How does it work?
Edge Central is a platform-independent microservices architecture with each service deployed as a container on the OS. The following diagram shows how the OPC UA Server is delivered as another microservice of Edge Central:
As a “northbound” service, it logically sits above the Edge Central message bus subscribing to all the data changes from the southbound devices that the user has onboarded to the platform. So, while Edge Central App Services deliver data northbound to Cloud systems like AWS and Azure, etc, the OPC UA Server provides data access for a range of OPC UA Clients such as industrial SCADA systems, HMIs, MES and ERP systems.
IOTech also provides a new web-based OPC UA browser tool, that lets you connect to an OPC UA Server and visualize its data. Take a look at this short demo video to see the Edge Central OPC UA Server feature in action. Within the demo, we use the IOTech OPC UA browser tool to help show what is happening:
Conclusion
IOTech’s integration of OPC UA Server technology into Edge Central represents a significant advancement in industrial edge computing. By aggregating data from different OT devices into a single OPC UA Server namespace, Edge Central streamlines data management, enhances SCADA system integration, and improves interoperability. These enhancements empower industrial enterprises to achieve both operational excellence and reduced integration costs through efficient data utilization, better-informed decision-making, and optimized performance across their facilities. Edge Central continues to lead the way in enabling smarter, more connected industrial environments, driving innovation and efficiency in today’s digital landscape.