Integration of OPC UA in 5G Networks

OPC UA is a platform-independent standard that is used for communication among various types of devices and systems in the industrial domain. In order to integrate OPC UA FX with the 5G system, it is important to understand the core principles of the OPC UA, since the 5G system is the medium for establishing and maintaining connectivity between the components and various automation functions represented by FunctionalEntities (FEs). This report provides an overview of OPC UA FX and then investigates how it could be integrated with 5G and assesses its technology readiness level.

Intro

Executive Summary

Against the background of the rapid evolution and networking capabilities of 5G, this paper evaluates the possibility of integrating OPC UA in it, focusing mainly on ways to support use cases involving OPC UA FX and field-level communications (FLC), which have more demanding requirements in terms of network performance, functionality, and operation. It looks at the overall architecture, relevant interfaces, information model, procedures, and other crucial aspects of integrating OPC UA and 5G. In addition, technical schemes (including transport mapping, QoS mapping, and management plane mapping) are analyzed in detail to provide a better understanding of how integration of OPC UA and 5G could work in actual practice. The analysis reveals a need to integrate the ICT and OT domains, which in turn calls for interfaces between the OPC UA and 5G systems and exchangeable parameters as prerequisites for providing good-quality communication services.

Key messages

Insight and Vision

The OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is a widely accepted cross-platform, open-source industry standard that provides a framework for industrial interoperability by enabling secure, reliable communication among devices, controllers, machines, and systems of different manufacturers via the same interface. It is now already being adopted by mainstream equipment manufacturers to support communication between controllers and devices and from devices and controllers to the cloud. As 5G and its networking capabilities evolve and grow, OPC UA has potential for more comprehensive use in the industrial domain while also taking advantage of the greater flexibility offered by mobile communication technologies.

OPC UA Field Exchange (OPC UA FX), based on the existing OPC UA framework, is used for field-level communication. It enables cross-vendor interoperability in an open, unified, standardized Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) communication solution that broadens OPC UA to include field-level communication and addresses the full range of use cases in process and factory automation. OPC UA FX covers automation components (serving as a basic model for controllers, de- vices and so on), offline configuration, communication mech- anism (including Connection management, bootstrapping, device deployment, etc.).

conclusion

Retrospect and Outlook

OPC UA is a platform-independent standard that is used for communication among various types of devices and systems in the industrial domain. In order to integrate OPC UA FX with the 5G system, it is important to understand the core principles of the OPC UA, since the 5G system is the medium for establishing and maintaining connectivity between the components and various automation functions represented by FunctionalEntities (FEs).

This report provides an overview of OPC UA FX and then investigates how it could be integrated with 5G and assesses its technology readiness level. The following aspects are addressed:

  • Designing the overall integration architecture for integrating OPC UA FX with 5G, which includes transport mapping, joint QoS management, and connectivity management.
  • Exploring the joint QoS management scheme between OPC UA and 5G, for which two mapping options are explored:
    • Mapping PriorityLabel to a scalar value representing a set of 5G QoS parameters
    • Transfer by OPC UA of the extended QosDataType to 5G for deriving 5G QoS parameters
  • Exploring possibilities for exchanging connectivity management information when 5G is integrated in an industrial network, focusing on the aspects of network planning and configuration capabilities, QoS monitoring capability for end-to-end connections, and QoS verification and optimization capabilities.

The analysis reveals a need to integrate the ICT and OT domains, which in turn calls for interfaces between the OPC UA and 5G systems and exchangeable parameters as prerequisites for providing good-quality communication services. 5G-ACIA and the OPC Foundation have shared their thoughts on the possibility of collaborating to complete this ongoing project and agreed that it is only the first step toward integration and further study is required. It is important to develop the OPC UA FX and 3GPP specifications further as a prerequisite for more detailed work.

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