OPC Foundation’s Field Level Communications Initiative Reaches Significant Milestone

Author photo: Chantal Polsonetti
ByChantal Polsonetti
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Company and Product News

OPC Foundation announces that its Field Level Communications Initiative has accomplished a significant milestone in the ongoing project by completing their initial release candidate with the focus on the Controller-to-Controller (C2C) use case.  In addition, a technical paper has been published that explains the technical approach and the basic concepts to extend OPC UA to the field level for all use cases and requirements in Factory and Process Automation.

Download “OPC Foundation FLC Initiative Technical paper” here:

OPCF-FLC-Technical-Paper-C2C

The initial release candidate of the Field Level Communications Initiative consists of four specification parts (Parts 80-83) and focuses on Controller-to-Controller (C2C) communication to exchange process data and configuration data using OPC UA Client/Server and PubSub extensions in combination with peer-to-peer connections and basic diagnostics:

  • Part 80 (OPC 10000-80) provides an overview and introduces the basic concepts of using OPC UA for field level communications.
  • Part 81 (OPC 10000-81) specifies the base information model and the communication concepts to meet the various use cases and requirements of Factory and Process Automation.
  • Part 82 (OPC 10000-82) describes networking services, such as topology discovery and time synchronization.
  • Part 83 (OPC 10000-83) describes the data structures for sharing information required for Offline Engineering using descriptors and descriptor packages.

Progress has also been made by two other working groups of the Field Level Communications Initiative, contributing to a harmonized solution for motion and safety applications:

  • The Safety Working Group will soon publish Version 2.0 of the OPC UA Safety specification (OPC 10000-15) that includes extensions for OPC UA PubSub and originates out of a cooperation with Profibus International. 
  • The Motion Working Group has started work in May 2020 to develop an architecture and common information model for motion devices in cooperation with ODVA and Sercos International.

The Advanced Physical Layer (APL) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) are critical important technologies for OPC Foundation in their strategy to bring OPC UA down to the field level.  Therefore, the following cooperations have been established:

  • The OPC Foundation has joined the Advanced Physical Layer Project Group (APL) to support the development and promotion of an advanced physical layer (APL) for Industrial Ethernet, suitable for use in demanding applications and hazardous locations in the process industry.
  • The OPC Foundation has established liaisons with IEC SC65C as well as IEEE 802.1 in order to support and align with the IEC/IEEE 60802 TSN Profile for Industrial Automation which is essential to build converged industrial automation networks.

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