OPC UA and S7-1500

2006 (2009): OPC UA

1993 (1996): OPC

1987 (1990) : DDE

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is an industrial communication protocol for interoperability.
OPC UA is the successor of COM based OPC, today referred to as OPC classic.

OPC
OLE for Process Control
COM for Process Control
Openness, Productivity, Connectivity
OPC UA
OPC Unified Architecture
Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture

www.opcfoundation.org
 Benefits

• International standard IEC 62541

• Binary protocol (opc.tcp://…:4840); Web service (http://...:80; https://...:443)
• Platform-independent
• Built-in PLC
• Security: Message encryption, signing; Certificates; Authentication; Tag access privilege OPC UA - Open
• Fault tolerance and redundancy standards for
• Heartbeat mechanism Client – Server communication
• Automatic backfilling concepts within
• Data exchange: synchronous, asynchronous, subscription Industrie 4.0
• Data: variables; methods; events; arrays, datablocks
• Timestamping with data: alarm location tracking
• Integrated 3 in 1: DA, HDA, A&E
• State-machines
 - The open I4.0/IoT standard interface for easy and secure
integration of any 3rd party device to the SIMATIC S7-1500

OPC UA Server Data Access

Connect any 3rd party device to

the S7-1500

Symbolic access to optimized or

absolute addressed data of the
PLC

I4.0 Security integrated

(Authentication, signed&
IoT
encrypted communication)

Online browse and offline

engineering

More features planned

Read and write PLC-data easy, standardized and symbolic

Easy setup Value

Activate the OPC UA server Write access possible Individual access

in the PLC properties Level of access via OPC UA can be
1 controlled individually for each
Access possible variable

Confirm that you have Inheritance of access rights

Based upon the well known
2 purchased the correct
license Step7 mechanisms

Make PLC-variables Different ways to access

Access individual variables as
3 accessible through
checkboxes in the editor well as access whole structures
and arrays as one object

Symbolic access via Performance

Access whole structures and
4 OPC UA
 arrays to achieve optimal
OPC UA client performance
 Performance – Usage of arrays and structures whenever possible

OPC UA Read OPC UA Registered Read

PLC programmer
Always structure your
OPC UA Client
data:
programmer
• Arrays
Read arrays and
• Structures
structures as a whole
• Individual
Variables
Factor
2-3

Accessing 1000 variables of real Accessing one structure with 1000 Accessing one array with 1000 variables
variables of real of real
Data exchange

Browsing

OPC UA
Server Browse Request

Browse Response

Browse access
 Browsing of PLC data
Data exchange

Read / Write access

OPC UA
Server
Read / Write Request : myDB.myArray

Read / Write Response

DB1.myArray
111000011111

Asynchronous
data access  Request is executed immediately

 Use case:
1110
0001
Synchronous read / write
DB1.myArray 1111  Asynchronous read / write
Data exchange

Registered Read / Write access

OPC UA Register Node Request : myDB.myArray

Server
Register Node Response : Node Id = 123456789

Read / Write Request: Node Id = 123456789

DB1.myArray Read / Write Response

111000011111

Asynchronous
data access 1. Nodes are registered
High increase of performance at
repeated access 2. Request is executed immediately
1110

DB1.myArray
0001  Use case:
1111
Repeated read / write
Data exchange

Subscription

OPC UA Subscribe myDB.myArray

Server Sampling=Xms,Publishing=Yms

myDB.myArray=111100001111
DB1.myArray=111000011111

Publishing

DB1.myArray
111000011111
111100001111

Reduction of communication load

Sampling
 Data is subscribed
 Transmission only at data change
 Absolute filters possible
1111
1110
0000
0001  Use case:  Write access is realized by write
DB1.myArray 1111 Data Monitoring (e.g. HMI, SCADA) instructions
Data exchange

Missed events - blind to fast changing events

Poll

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

During this period, master is

polling other slaves on same
media.

Poll

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3 3 3

Status of 3 Changed
NOT Detected!!
Data exchange

Recommended type of access

Registered
Read / Write Subscription
Read / Write

 Single or rare access of

data

 Cyclic read of data

(≤ 5s)
 Monitor data

 High performance
data access
Data exchange

Combination of read access and subscription

Poll

Time
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Res

Poll

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Res

Poll

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
5 7 Res
Data exchange

Automatic back-filling

Data Event driven: No lost Data

 Data exchange

Timestamping - Alarm location tracking Fire Alarm

14:40:17 445 msec

Coolant Pressure Low

14:42:45 238 msec

Pump Overheat Alarm

14:43:03 225 msec
All hell broke loose at
14:44:33. Fuel Pressure Low Alarm
14:43:03 658 msec
 “The only communication technology in the factory, with implicit security
features and the potential for the challenges posed by Industrie 4.0, that I
am aware of today, is OPC-UA.”
Security is an integral part of OPC UA -- Holger Junker, German Federal Office for Information Security, (BSI)

Export of the OPC UA server Offline certificate exchange

certificate from the TIA Portal
1 and import in 3rd party X.509
engineering
Import of the OPC UA client
X.509
2 certificate into the TIA Portal

Add the OPC UA client

3 certificate to the trust list of
the OPC UA server

Message encryption and

4 signing

User authentication by
5 username & password
additionally possible None 128bit 256bit
XML-Export to make offline engineering of OPC UA clients even easier

OPC UA XML- Export directly out of the TIA Portal

Programming in TIA Portal Programming 3rd Party

Clients can be programmed offline XML-Export
without PLC

Standardized OPC UA XML file by the

OPC Foundation Openness
Download API Download

Export can be triggered by

Openness API to support direct
Access to data
integration in 3rd party engineering
Process and machine centric applications

Easy connection of external Easy integration into external Simple expansion / use of the
systems applications PROFINET network

Vertical communication and external connection in Industrie 4.0 concepts

Remote centric applications
Cloud-based SCADA applications