OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is a platform-independent standard designed to facilitate seamless information exchange in industrial automation and other domains. It provides a comprehensive framework for modelling information, secure communication, and ensuring interoperability between diverse systems and devices.

This part of OPC 10000 introduces the fundamental concepts and provides a high-level overview of the OPC Unified Architecture. It covers key architectural principles, fundamental models such as the AddressSpace Model and the Security Model, and the roles of core OPC UA components like Clients and Servers. It is intended for developers, system integrators, and anyone needing a high-level understanding of OPC UA. This part of the specification focuses on providing a conceptual foundation and does not delve into detailed implementation specifics or protocol mappings, which are covered in other parts of the OPC 10000 series.

This part provides the foundational knowledge necessary to understand the subsequent parts of the OPC 10000 series, which delve into specific aspects of the architecture, such as security (Part 2), the AddressSpace model (Part 3), and Services (Part 4). Each of the other parts is briefly explained along with a suggested reading order.