MM16-7

SICE02-0806
OPC (OLE for Process Control)
Specification and its Developments
Li Zheng', Hiroyuki Nakagawa'
' OPC Council. Japan ISamhLe Ctrrpuratinni
' OPT Council. Japan IYokogawa Elcaric Cwporaliunl
' Ihcng-li~i,atc.~-smaakt.mjp.
:H I N P k i _ N ~ ~ a U - a : " Y , , ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ a . C O I P

Abslnel: The O K IS a technical specification that defines a set ofctandard industrial soliware interfaces based
upon Microsoft's OLEKOM technology. The application of the OFT specification makes pussible data
cxchanb? and interoperability b w e c n field syrtemddcvices. nutomation~controlsystem? and manufacture
managenicnt sotiware.
This paper provides on overview o f i h c OPC Specification. It describes the basic concepts m d adranIapr of
the OPC technology and inmduces the latest developments of the OPC technology including OPC-DX (OPC
eXchapel and OPC-XML.

licywords: OPC (OLE for Process Control), Industrial Suftuare Interface Standard. COhl. Firldbus. SOAP

SU' package? cannnt use the ~ r z m ed e w r at the w m

1 Introduction t m r since they each ciintain an independent d m e r

Soflwarc is becoming more and niore the essential

factor in current automation and contml systtm?.At the
mine time. PC IPersonal Computer) is widely used for
visuallmtion. data acquisitiun process control. and the
other autnmalion and control solutions.

'These automation and control solhvare Nnninp on the

6rld devices and process compulers may be developed
or provided by different vendors. therefore an industrial
software interface standard which nn inlegrnte different
control wftwarc componcnrs hns been becoming veg.
intprtant.

In this paper. UT will introduce such an industrial

s o h a r e interface standard - O K (OLE for process
Controll. which b been already used by a l m s t a11
lcading automation equipment manufscturm and control
w,ltwnrr providers. and IIL. been established as a
worldwide industmil defaeto standard'*'.
2 Software Bus - OPC
2.1 Why i s OPC Needed?
Before OPC developed. nwny industrial .wftu*m
applications access dala from control devices using
independently developed device-specific drivers. This
led to the followinppmblems:
. Each sonuare appliwion must iidude a driver for a
particular harduxe device [Fig. I ),
. Conllicts between driven of various manufacturers.
caused hy the facl that wme hardware features are nm
supported hy all driver developers.
. A change in hantuzrc's capabilities may cause
hctionaliry failures of some drivers.
. Conflicts in access lo the f l u ' device - two diflerent
2.2 How does OPC Solves the
Problem?
To solve these problem. OPC technology
developed. OPC &tines an open inirrface OVR which
PC-based sotbare compnents arc able to e x c h a n p data.
It is b a d on the Micmsofl COhl (Component Ohject
hldel) and DCOM tDistribuledCOMI technologies.
OK therefore offers an ideal basis for connecting
industrial applications and ofice p m g " with the field
equipment tflical in the automation level (Fig. 2).
The introduction of a standardized interface benvem
WindoK programs ha5 c a u d the number of driver
deteuelopments uhich hnrdwarr rmnufaclurers implemenl
for their components lo he reduced to only one -the
OPC Server Likewise. only a single driver interface is
only still required fnr the roRware manufacturer - the
OPC Client interface. This. hy Far. docs not only pruvidc
brnefits tu the manuhcturcrs. bul to the usm as wen.

SCE 2002 Aug. 5-7. ZWZ. 917 PRwO1/MIwMMoo1wWO2oMSICEMx)I

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~ . r o * U . . ~
Fig 2 OPCSdves the Pnlh1em.s
2.3 Where is OPC Used?
The OPC standard communication between sohm
compmnts is U& to exchange process data especially in
industrial information systems (Fig. 3). In its louser
section (Field Management): the Figure 3 shotvs three
computers with the OPC server. implementid with
various OPC spcciiications (see bclow). These sewers
exchange proccsr data with the conlml system using the
PLC IPm-mtrmble Logic Controller). DCS
(Distributed Control Systeni). and !or Ficld Network
3 OPC - A Defacto Standard
3.1 Pre-OPC Era DDE - I n Japan there are 34 OPC server pmducns and 29
In c v e y area o f industry. there i s a move fium
pmprietary solutions to open. vendor-independent
standards. As well as reducing MSLZ il allows thc choice
o f compunenls according to their performance and
reduces the dependence on suppliers. An impressive
sxamplr lor this mvvc can be found in industrial
communications. Today's prevailing systems arc all
hased on open. vendor-indcpcndcnt fieldbus standards.
Such open standards were nrrded in the domain o f
applications too. The specification oi the Dynamic Data
Exchange tDDE) protocol provided a fim solution for
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SICE02-0806
thc data cxchanpe betwccn MS-Windows bsed
applications The m i n drawback o f this solution was its
low handwidth. Thcretbre DDE uils not vny well suited
for real-time systems. a major requirement as far as
autonution systems arc concemed. >'
3.2 OPC Started as Demands
Thc original OPT specificatim -2s created through
the collabration of a number o f leading worldwide
automation harduare and roftwarc supplien. The initial
OM7 specificmion (version 1.0) was released in IYVh.
wi(h initial comnurcial products following later that year.
Sup@ for OPC by automation suppliers reached critical
mass in late 1'498. propelling il f"I specification to a
defacto industry standad.
3.3 Why can OPC be Estabished as a
Defacto Standard?
W y can the OPC spcification is cstahished as a
defacto indurtrial standard so rapidly'? \Me can give the
following ratsons:
. OPC is dcvrloprd h c d un the hlicromft'i
COhljDCOM technologs. whieh i s much powerful
than DDE on ~cccssperformance, security. reliability.
and flcsibility.
* OPT defines D reasonable and paniciple .specification
which can bc widcly accepted by both FA (Factory
Aulon~ation)2nd PA (Pmccsr Automation).
* Almost all automation cquipment manuiacturers
adapted Micros& Windows as their control systems'
platforms.
Since thc sucund half o f I')w's. more and nwre third
p" industrial sofiuarc pravidcrc appr;urd. --he
providcd many Iow~-cost and high-functionality
Window based industrial sotlwarc products such 3s
SCADA. lnstcad of device-specitic data interfaces. a
sandard dara access specification b expected by end-
wets and indusrrhl sofwarc providers.
f In fact. there is no aoy apparent competition existing
for the industrial process data access specifications.
Therefore. there is nuching hesitated for industrial
software dcvclopcrs to c h o w OPC .x their data
x c a intdare.
~
3.4 How Many OPC Products are
Available Now?
OPT client products have been released until Octoher.
2001. In lhc world-wide, there are more than 700 OPC
products available From automation and control cquiment
manuiacturen and third pan? industrial sofiware
providers In Tact. it i s no pmblm to find a OPC w ' e r
product for any m j o r fieldbus. DCS. and PLC. most of
them arc proridcd by multiple pmviders.
There i s a OPC Server Search Engine available in the
OPC Foundation Site- ( ' 1 '1.
which i s design& to hdp end urrn identify what

vendors supply a specific OPC Server. Cusiomen can
cvcify network. device manufamrer. or nwnufacntrer
and device model or brand as input data. The Search
Engine returns OPC Company and Product Information.
4 OPC and Fieldbus
4.1 Fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet
Since IWo's. there has been an ongoing hattlc
between the different ficldhuc sundank eamps to win
control of the factory floor. As thc reuwltr thcrc arc
numerous flavors of fieldbus stan&&. such as
Foundation Fieldbuv PRORBUS. DeviceSet. CC-Lint
IliTERBUS and others. Each industrial network nnd
fieldbus may be optimized for a panicular discrete or
process manufacturing application and pruvi&s specific
features and capabilities for the task"".
Fig 4 ,Viimm,iu Flmors olFieUhur Smndunk
On the other hand. commercial Ethemrl. which M
used hg intemct. arc hecoming more and more powerful.
This leads indmtrial users to he seriwly considerin!
commercial Ethemet as industrial net~.orkin the plan1
and factory Hoor. With such comercial technnlegies.
usen can leverage existing invcstmnt in infrastmcture.
applicilion sooftwan. and mining.. Ethemet is making
ciinimnrial technulogy anractive and cost effective fnr
open conmctivity and intemperability between factory
automation. process conml. and b u s i n s applications.
To answer such demonds. some fieldbus asmiations
define their n m unique Ethcmct cbmmunication
protocol. lligh Spced Ethernet (Foundation Fieldbus).
PROFINct (PROFIBUS). EthemetflP (DmiceNet and
C'onnolNet). ModbuvTCP (Modbus) snd XI on.
Although they can coexist on the same Ethemet
network wire, thcy arc incompatihle and unaware of one
imther and therrfore cunnol exchange infurmation to
each othm.
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SICEO2-0806
4.2 OPC-DX - A Soft Gateway for
Fieldbus, DCS, and PLC
lo snlve the abow pmblem. the OPC Data cXchange
(OPC-DX) specilkation is pruposed by the OPC
Fuundation. obtained the supponing from Fieldbus
Foundation. PROFIBUS Intemational. Open DeviceNct
Vendor Asmiation. and ControlNer International. And
son= d h e r fieldhu5 associations alm expressed srrong
interming to this specificainn. Using such a OPC-DX
technology. a plan can link subrystcms together.
despite vaious fieldbus. PLC ami DCS".
OW-DX is a server-to-scnw communication
mechanism. Devices. networks. or suhqstems cunncct to
O K - D A fiemen. OPC-DA servers c a b in nun, connect
one another directly using OK.-DX interfaces
communicating pear to pear, eliminating the need fcir
intemledine .wHware cumponets to transfer the daw.
.An OPC-DXserver has an OPT-DA server pan and an
OPC-DA client pan at the same time. The the OPC-D.4
client pan reads daw from another OPT-DA server. and
the OPT-DA s e w n pan writes the d m to contrul device
like a uwd OPC-DA server.
$ I"
: e.*
:,,*
Fig 5 OPC DX l D r m cA'r.bu,tgi~lSpLr(licufion
Although the OW-DX specifictaiun is under
devclupmt cumntly. it will be finished and r e l e w d in
later of this ycar.
5 OPC and Internet
At present. OPC Foundation is developing the now
OPT-XML specification5'. Its objective U to develop
flexible and consistent regulations to make technological
daw available via OPC using SOAP (Simple Object
r ~ ~the Internet~lntmnct.The SOAP is
Access P r o ~ o c o l on
an intcnnion protocol that links twu technulogics XML
(Extensihle Markup Language) and HTTP. II'TTP is u s d
3s tranylon protocol. The parameters of the interactions
are described with XML.
 SICEO2-0806

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6 References
OPC Council. hpnn. "M3C.s OPC Applicauunr'.
C h p e r I . S i k n b g o Shimbun. 2OO1 tin
lap;meaa)
F. Iu8aninand J. Lunge. "OLE for Process Control'.
ChAptrr I. Huthig \'erlap Heidelgerg. 2001.
I, Bergc_ "Process fieldbuses - Engineering.
Operation and Moinrenance". C'haplcr 1. The
Innnrmentation. Systems and Auroination Society.
ZOO2 (ISA).
U. Hollev. " O K DX Glues Fieldbuses 'Togelher".
Nu. 8. lnduruial Erhcrnn Book, ?OK?.
L. Zheng. "OPTfor Fieldbues and Inlemet". Vol.-lS
No.& 1nsuwn"rion And Cuntrol Engineering,
ZW?(in Japaneasel.
D. Box and others. "Simple Objccl ACE- PNlWOl
(SOAP) 1.1". The World Wide Weh Conwniuni
"3C) Notc. 20110~

920

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