This Annex provides details on mapping OPC COM Data Access (DA) information to OPC UA to help vendors migrate to OPC UA based systems while still being able to access information from existing OPC COM DA systems.

The OPC Foundation provides COM UA Wrapper and Proxy samples that act as a bridge between the OPC DA and the OPC UA systems.

The COM UA Wrapper is an OPC UA Server that wraps an OPC DA Server and with that enables an OPC UA Client to access information from the DA Server. The COM UA Proxy enables an OPC DA Client to access information from an OPC UA Server.

The mappings describe generic DA interoperability components. It is recommended that vendors use this mapping if they develop their own components, however, some applications may benefit from vendor specific mappings.

COM DA relies on the Microsoft COM security infrastructure and does not specify any security parameters such as user identity. The developer of UA Wrapper and Proxy therefore has to consider the mapping of security aspects.

The COM UA Wrapper for instance may accept any Username/password and then try to impersonate this user by calling proper Windows services before connecting to the COM DA Server.

OPC DA defines 3 elements in the address space: Branch, Item and Property. The COM UA Wrapper maps these types to the OPC UA types as described in Subclauses A.4.3.2 to A.4.3.4.

image027.png

Figure A.12 – Sample OPC UA Information Model for OPC DA

DA Branches are represented in the COM UA Wrapper as Objects of FolderType.

The top-level branch (the root) should be represented by an Object where the BrowseName is the Server ProgId.

The OPC DA Address space hierarchy is discovered using the ChangeBrowsePosition from the Root and BrowseOPCItemIds to get the Branches, Items and Properties.

The name returned from the BrowseOPCItemIds enumString is used as the BrowseName and the DisplayName for each Branch. See also clause A.3.1.5.

The ItemId obtained using the GetItemID is used as a part of the NodeId for each Branch. See also clause A.3.1.5.

An OPC UA Folder representing a DA Branch uses the Organizes References to reference child DA Branches and uses HasComponent References for DA Leafs (Items). It is acceptable for customized wrappers to use a sub-type of these ReferenceTypes.

DA items (leafs) are represented in the COM UA Wrapper as Variables. The VariableType depends on the existance of special DA properties as follows:

Below are mappings that are common for all item types

Note that the same values are also set for the UserAccessLevel in the COM UA Wrapper.

Any Properties added to a Node in the COM UA Wrapper are referenced using the HasProperty ReferenceType.

A property in the DA server is represented in the COM UA Wrapper as a Variable with TypeDefinition as PropertyType.

The properties for an item are retrieved using the QueryAvailableProperties call in the DA server.

Below are mappings of the property details to the OPC UA Property:

Table A.59 shows the mapping between the common OPC COM DA properties to the OPC UA Node attributes/properties.

Table A.59 – OPC COM DA to OPC UA Properties mapping

Property Name (PropertyID) of OPC COM DA

OPC UA Information Model

OPC UA DataType

Access Rights (5)

AccessLevel Attribute

Int32

EU Units (100)

EngineeringUnits Property

String

Item Description (101)

Description Attribute

String

High EU (102)

EURange Property

Double

Low EU (103)

EURange Property

Double

High Instrument Range (104)

InstrumentRange Property

Double

Low Instrument Range (105)

InstrumentRange Property

Double

Close Label (106)

TrueState Property

String

Open Label (107)

FalseState Property

String

Other Properties (include Vendor specific Properties)

PropertyType

Based on the DataType of the Property

As described above, both the OPC UA Browsename and Displayname for Nodes representing COM DA Branches and Leafs are derived from the name of the corresponding item in the COM DA Server.

This name can only be acquired by using the COM DA Browse Services. In OPC UA, however, the BrowseName and DisplayName are Attributes that Clients can ask for at any time. There are several options to support this in a Wrapper but all of them have pros and cons. Here are some popular implementation options:

  1. Allow browsing the complete COM DA Address Space and then build and persist an offline copy of it. Resolve the BrowseName by scanning this offline copy.
  2. Pro: The ItemID can be used as is for the OPC UA NodeId.
  3. Con: The initial browse can take a while and may have to be repeated for COM DA Servers with a dynamic Address Space.
  4. Create OPC UA NodeId values that include both the COM DA ItemID and the Item name. When the OPC UA Client passes such a NodeId to read the BrowseName or DisplayName Attribute, the wrapper can easily extract the name from the NodeId value.
  5. Pro: Efficient and reliable.
  6. Con: The NodeId will not represent the ItemId. It becomes difficult for human users to match the two IDs.
  7. A number of COM DA Servers use ItemIDs that consist of a path where the path elements are separated with a delimiter and the last element is the item name. Wrappers may provide ways to configure the delimiter so that they can easily extract the item name.
  8. Pro: Efficient and reliable. The ItemID can be used as is for the OPC UA NodeId.
  9. Con: Not a generic solution. Only works for specific COM-DA Servers.

For wrappers that are custom to a specific Server, knowledge of the COM DA server address space can result in other optimizations or short cuts (i.e. the server will always have a certain schema / naming sequence etc.).

In a DA server, Automation Data is represented by Value, Quality and Time Stamp for a Tag.

The COM UA Wrapper maps the VQT data to the Data Value and Diagnostic Info structures.

The Error codes returned by the DA server are based on the HRESULT type. The COM UA Wrapper maps this error code to an OPC UA Status Code. Figure A.13 illustrates this mapping.

image028.png

Figure A.13 – OPC COM DA to OPC UA data and error mapping

The data values in the DA server are represented as Variant data type. The COM UA Wrapper converts them to the corresponding OPC UA DataType. The mapping is shown in Table A.60:

Table A.60 – DataTypes and mapping

Variant Data

Type (In DA server)

OPC UA

Data type Mapping in COM UA Server (DataValue structure)

VT_I2

Int16

VT_I4

Int32

VT_R4

Float

VT_R8

Double

VT_BSTR

String

VT_BOOL

Boolean

VT_UI1

Byte

VT_I1

SByte

VT_UI2

UInt16

VT_UI4

UInt32

VT_I8

Int64

VT_UI8

UInt64

VT_DATE

Double

VT_DECIMAL

Decimal

VT_ARRAY

Array of OPC UA types

.

The Quality of a Data Value in the DA server is represented as a 16 bit value where the lower 8 bits is of the form QQSSSSLL (Q: Main Quality, S: Sub Status, L: Limit) and higher 8 bits is vendor specific.

The COM UA Wrapper maps the DA server to the OPC UA Status code as shown in Figure A.14:

image029.png

Figure A.14 – Status Code mapping

The primary quality is mapped to the Severity field of the Status code. The Sub Status is mapped to the SubCode and the Limit is mapped to the Limit Bits of the Status Code.

Please note that the Vendor quality is currently discarded.

Table A.61 shows a mapping of the OPC COM DA primary quality mapping to OPC UA status code

Table A.61 – Quality mapping

OPC DA Primary Quality (Quality & Sub status QQSSSS)

OPC UA Status Code

GOOD

Good

LOCAL_OVERRIDE

Good_LocalOverride

UNCERTAIN

Uncertain

SUB_NORMAL

Uncertain_SubNormal

SENSOR_CAL

Uncertain_SensorNotAccurate

EGU_EXCEEDED

Uncertain_EngineeringUnitsExceeded

LAST_USABLE

Uncertain_LastUsableValue

BAD

Bad

CONFIG_ERROR

Bad_ConfigurationError

NOT_CONNECTED

Bad_NotConnected

COMM_FAILURE

Bad_NoCommunication

DEVICE_FAILURE

Bad_DeviceFailure

SENSOR_FAILURE

Bad_SensorFailure

LAST_KNOWN

Bad_OutOfService

OUT_OF_SERVICE

Bad_OutOfService

WAITING_FOR_INITIAL_DATA

Bad_WaitingForInitialData

The Timestamp provided for a value in the DA server is assigned to the SourceTimeStamp of the DataValue in the COM UA Wrapper.

The ServerTimeStamp in the DataValue is set to the current time by the COM UA Wrapper at the start of the Read Operation.

The COM UA Wrapper supports performing Read operations to DA servers of versions 2.05a and 3.

For version 2.05a, the COM UA wrapper creates a Group using the IOPCServer::AddGroup method and adds the items whose data is to be read to the Group using IOPCItemMgmt::AddItems method. The Data is retrieved for the items using the IOPCSyncIO::Read method. The VQT for each item is mapped to the DataValue structure as shown in Figure A.13. Please note that only Read from Device is supported for this version. The “maxAge” parameter is ignored.

For version 3, the COM UA Wrapper uses the IOPCItemIO::Read to retrieve the data. The VQT for each item is mapped to the DataValue structure as shown in Figure A.13. The Read supports both the Read from Device and Cache and uses the “maxAge” parameter.

If there are errors for the items in the Read from the DA server, then these are mapped to the StatusCode of the DataValue in the COM UA Wrapper.

The mapping of the OPC COM DA Read Errors code to OPC UA Status code (in the COM UA Wrapper) is shown in Table A.62:

Table A.62 – OPC DA Read error mapping

OPC DA Error ID

OPC UA Status Code

OPC_E_BADRIGHTS

Bad_NotReadable

E_OUTOFMEMORY

Bad_OutOfMemory

OPC_E_INVALIDHANDLE

Bad_NodeIdUnknown

OPC_E_UNKNOWNITEMID

Bad_NodeIdUnknown

E_INVALIDITEMID

Bad_NodeIdInvalid

E_INVALID_PID

Bad_AttributeIdInvalid

E_ACCESSDENIED

Bad_OutOfService

Others

Bad_UnexpectedError

The COM UA Wrapper supports performing Write operations to DA servers of versions 2.05a and 3.

For version 2.05a, the COM UA wrapper creates a Group using the IOPCServer::AddGroup method and adds the items whose data is to be written using IOPCItemMgmt::AddItems method. The value is written for the items using the IOPCSyncIO::Write method. Note that if the StatusCode or TimeStamps (Source or Server) is specified to be written for the item then the COM UA Wrapper returns a BadWriteNotSupported Status code for the item.

For version 3, the COM UA Wrapper uses the IOPCItemIO::WriteVQT data including StatusCode and TimeStamp. If a SourceTimeStamp is provided, this timestamp is used for the Write else the ServerTimeStamp is used.

If there are errors for the items in the Write from the DA server, then these are mapped to the StatusCode for the corresponding item.

The mapping of the OPC COM DA Write Errors code to OPC UA Status code (in the COM UA Wrapper) is shown in Table A.63:

Table A.63 – OPC DA Write error code mapping

OPC DA Error ID

OPC UA Status Code

E_BADRIGHTS

Bad_NotWritable

DISP_E_TYPEMISMATCH

Bad_TypeMismatch

E_BADTYPE

Bad_TypeMismatch

E_RANGE

Bad_OutOfRange

DISP_E_OVERFLOW

Bad_OutOfRange

E_OUTOFMEMORY

Bad_OutOfMemory

E_INVALIDHANDLE

Bad_NodeIdUnknown

E_UNKNOWNITEMID

Bad_NodeIdUnknown

E_INVALIDITEMID

Bad_NodeIdInvalid

E_INVALID_PID

Bad_NodeIdInvalid

E_NOTSUPPORTED

Bad_WriteNotSupported

S_CLAMP

Good_Clamped

Others

Bad_UnexpectedError

A subscription is created in the DA server when a MonitoredItem is created in the COM UA Wrapper.

The SamplingInterval and the Deadband value are used for the subscription to setup a periodic data change call back on the COM UA Wrapper. Note that only the PercentDeadbandType is supported by the COM UA Wrapper.

The VQT for each item is mapped to the DataValue structure as shown in Figure A.13 and published to the client by the COM UA Wrapper periodically.

The mapping of the OPC COM DA Read Errors code to OPC UA Status code (in the COM UA Wrapper) is the same as the Read mapping in Figure A.13.

The Data Access COM UA Proxy is a COM Server combined with a UA Client. It maps the Data Access address space of UA Data Access Server into the appropriate COM Data Access objects.

Clauses A.4.1 through A.4.6 identify the design guidelines and constraints used to develop the Data Access COM UA Proxy provided by the OPC Foundation. In order to maintain a high degree of consistency and interoperability, it is strongly recommended that vendors, who choose to implement their own version of the Data Access COM UA Proxy, follow these same guidelines and constraints.

The Data Access COM Client simply needs to address how to connect to the UA Data Access Server. Connectivity approaches include the one where Data Access COM Clients connect to a UA Data Access Server with a CLSID just as if the target Server were a Data Access COM Server. However, the CLSID can be considered virtual since it is defined to connect to intermediary components that ultimately connect to the UA Data Access Server. Using this approach, the Data Access COM Client calls co-create instance with a virtual CLSID as described above. This connects to the Data Access COM UA Proxy components. The Data Access COM UA Proxy then establishes a secure channel and session with the UA Data Access Server. As a result, the Data Access COM Client gets a COM Data Access Server interface pointer.

OPC UA defines 8 Node Class types in the address space Object, Variable, Method, ObjectType, VariableType, ReferenceType, DataType, View. The COM UA Proxy maps only the nodes of Node Class types Object, Variable to the OPC DA types as shown in the figure below. Only the nodes under the Objects node are considered for the COM UA Proxy address space and others such as Types, Views are not mapped.

Figure A.15 shows an example mapping of OPC DA to OPC UA information.

image030.png

Figure A.15 – Sample OPC DA mapping of OPC UA Information Model and Address Space

A node of Object Node class in the OPC UA server is represented in the Data Access COM UA Proxy as a Branch.

The root of the Data Access COM UA Proxy is the Objects folder of the OPC UA Server.

The OPC UA Address space hierarchy is discovered using the Browse Service for the Objects Node using the following filters:

  • BrowseDirection as Forward
  • ReferenceTypeId as Organizes and HasChild.
  • IncludeSubtypes as True
  • NodeClassMask as Object and Variable

The DisplayName of the OPC UA node is used as the Name for each Branch in the Data Access COM UA Proxy

Each Branch in the Data Access COM UA Proxy is assigned 3 properties:

  • UA Browse Name (Property ID: 613): The value of the BrowseName attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.
  • UA Description (Property ID: 614): The value of the Description attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property, if a Description attribute is provided.
  • Item Description (Property ID: 101): The value of the DisplayName attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.

NOTE COM DA Clients typically display the ItemID and the Item Description. Since the ItemID generated by the UA Proxy may be particularly difficult to read and understand, proxies may use the DisplayName as value for the Item Description Property as it will be easier to understand by a human user.

A node of Variable Node class in the OPC UA server is represented in the Data Access COM UA Proxy as an Item.

The DisplayName of the OPC UA node is used as the Name for each Item in the Data Access COM UA Proxy.

The NodeId of the OPC UA node is used as the ItemId for each Item in the Data Access COM UA Proxy. But the ‘=’ character is replaced with ‘-’ in the string. E.g. NodeId: ns=4,i=10, ItemID = “ns-4;i-10” or NodeId: ns=4,s=FL102, ItemID = “ns-4,s-FL102”

Each Item in the Data Access COM UA Proxy is assigned the following properties based on the node attributes or its references:

Standard Properties:

The other AccessLevel provided by OPC are ignored

  • Server Scan Rate (Property ID: 6): The value of the MinimumSamplingInterval attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.
  • Item EU Type (Property ID: 7): The EU Type value is assigned based on the references of the node in the OPC UA Server:

Analog(1) : if the node in the OPC UA Server references a EURange property node, then it is assigned the Analog EU Type.

Enumerated(2): if the node in the OPC UA Server references a EnumStrings property node, then it is assigned the Enumerated EU Type.

Empty(0): For a node in the OPC UA Server that does not meet above criteria, the type is set as 0 (Empty)

New Properties:

  • UA BuiltIn Type (Property ID: 610): The identifier value of the DataType node associated with the DataType attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.
  • UA Data Type Id (Property ID: 611): The complete NodeId value (namespace and identifier) of the DataType node associated with the DataType attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.
  • UA Value Rank (Property ID: 612): The value of the ValueRank attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.
  • UA Browse Name (Property ID: 613): The value of the BrowseName attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.
  • UA Description (Property ID: 614): The value of the Description attribute of the node in the OPC UA Server is assigned to this property.

For generating ItemIDs, the Proxy uses Namespace Indices. To assure that Clients can persist these ItemIDs, the Namespace Indices must never change. To accomplish this the Proxy has to persist its Namespace Table and only append entries but never change existing ones.

The Proxy also has to provide a translation from the current Namespace Table in the Server to the persisted Namespace Table.

If you move or copy the Proxy to another machine, the Namespace Table has to be copied to this machine as well.

In an OPC UA Server, Automation Data is represented as a Data Value and and status, in addition additional error data can be provided via Diagnostic Info for a tag

The COM UA Proxy maps the Data Value structure into VQT data and error code.

For successful operations(StatusCode of Good and Uncertain), the COM UA Proxy maps the Status Code of the DataValue to the OPC DA Quality But in case of error(StatusCode of Bad), the Status Code is mapped to the OPC DA Error code.

The StatusCode in the Diagnostic Info returned by the OPC UA Server are mapped to OPC DA Error codes. Figure A.16 illustrates this mapping.

image031.png

Figure A.16 – OPC UA to OPC DA data & error mapping

The COM UA Proxy converts the OPC UA Data Value to the corresponding OPC DA Variant type. The mapping is shown in Table A.64. For DataTypes that are subtypes of an existing base DataType the conversion for the Base DataType is used.

Table A.64 – DataTypes and Mapping

OPC UA

Data type (Bin UA Server)

Variant Data

Type (In DA server)

Int16

VT_I2

Int32

VT_I4

Float

VT_R4

Double

VT_R8

Decimal

VT_DECIMAL

String

VT_BSTR

Boolean

VT_BOOL

Byte

VT_UI1

SByte

VT_I1

UInt16

VT_UI2

UInt32

VT_UI4

Int64

VT_I8

UInt64

VT_UI8

Guid

VT_BSTR

DateTime

VT_DATE

NodeId

VT_BSTR

XmlElement

VT_BSTR

ExpandedNodeId

VT_BSTR

QualifiedName

VT_BSTR

LocalizedText

VT_BSTR

StatusCode

VT_UI4

ExtensionObject

Array of VT_UI1

Array of above OPC UA types

Array of corresponding Variant type

The Quality of a Data Value in the OPC UA Server is represented as a StatusCode.

The COM UA Proxy maps the Severity, Subcode and the limit bits of the OPC UA Status code to the lower 8 bits of the OPC DA Quality structure (of the form QQSSSSLL). Figure A.17 illustrates this mapping.

image032.png

Figure A.17 – OPC UA Status Code to OPC DA quality mapping

The Severity field of the Status code is mapped to the primary quality. The SubCode is mapped to the Sub Status and the Limit Bits are mapped to the Limit field.

Table A.65 shows a mapping of the OPC UA status code to OPC DA primary quality

Table A.65 – Quality mapping

OPC UA Status Code

OPC DA Primary Quality (Quality & Sub status QQSSSS)

Good

GOOD

Good_LocalOverride

LOCAL_OVERRIDE

Uncertain

UNCERTAIN

Uncertain_SubNormal

SUB_NORMAL

Uncertain_SensorNotAccurate

SENSOR_CAL

Uncertain_EngineeringUnitsExceeded

EGU_EXCEEDED

Uncertain_LastUsableValue

LAST_USABLE

Bad

BAD

Bad_ConfigurationError

CONFIG_ERROR

Bad_NotConnected

NOT_CONNECTED

Bad_NoCommunication

COMM_FAILURE

Bad_OutOfService

OUT_OF_SERVICE

Bad_DeviceFailure

DEVICE_FAILURE

Bad_SensorFailure

SENSOR_FAILURE

Bad_WaitingForInitialData

WAITING_FOR_INITIAL_DATA

If available, the SourceTimestamp of the DataValue in the OPC UA Server is assigned to the Timestamp for the value in the COM UA Proxy. If SourceTimestamp is not available, then the ServerTimestamp is used.

The COM UA Proxy converts all the ItemIds in the Read into valid NodeIds by replacing the ‘-’ with ‘=’ and calls the OPC UA Read Service for the Value Attribute.

If the Read Service call is successful then DataValue for each node is mapped to the VQT for each item as shown in Figure A.16.

If the Read Service call fails or If there are errors for some of the Nodes, then the StatusCodes of these Nodes are mapped to the error code by the COM UA Proxy.

The mapping of the OPC UA Status code to OPC DA Read Error code (in the COM UA Proxy) is shown in Table A.66:

Table A.66 – OPC UA Read error mapping

OPC UA Status Code

OPC DA Error ID

Bad_OutOfMemory

E_OUTOFMEMORY

Bad_NodeIdInvalid

E_INVALIDITEMID

Bad_NodeIdUnknown

E_UNKNOWNITEMID

Bad_NotReadable

E_BADRIGHTS

Bad_UserAccessDenied

E_ACCESSDENIED

Bad_AttributeIdInvalid

E_INVALIDITEMID

Bad_UnexpectedError

E_FAIL

Bad_InternalError

E_FAIL

Bad_SessionClosed

E_FAIL

Bad_TypeMismatch

E_BADTYPE

The COM UA Proxy converts all the ItemIds in the Write into valid NodeIds by replacing the ‘-’ with ‘=’. It converts the Value, Quality and Timestamp (VQT) to a DataValue structure as per the mapping in Figure A.16. and calls the OPC UA Write Service for the Value Attribute.

If the Write Service call fails or if there are errors for some of the Nodes, then the StatusCodes of these Nodes are mapped to the error code by the COM UA Proxy.

The mapping of the OPC UA Status code to OPC DA Write Error code (in the COM UA Proxy) is shown in Table A.67:

Table A.67 – OPC UA Write error code mapping

OPC UA Status Code

OPC DA Error ID

Bad_TypeMismatch

E_BADTYPE

Bad_OutOfMemory

E_OUTOFMEMORY

Bad_NodeIdInvalid

E_INVALIDITEMID

Bad_NodeIdUnknown

E_UNKNOWNITEMID

Bad_NotWritable

E_BADRIGHTS

Bad_UserAccessDenied

E_ACCESSDENIED

Bad_AttributeIdInvalid

E_UNKNOWNITEMID

Bad_WriteNotSupported

E_NOTSUPPORTED

Bad_OutOfRange

E_RANGE

The COM UA Proxy creates a Subscription in the OPC UA Server when a Group is created. The Name, Active flag, UpdateRate parameters of the Group are used while creating the subscription.

The COM UA Proxy Creates Monitored Items in the OPC UA Server when items are added to the Group.

Following parameters and filters are used for creating the monitored items:

  • The ItemIds are converted to valid NodeIds by replacing the ‘-’ with ‘=’.
  • Data Change Filter is used for Items with EU type as Analog:

Trigger = STATUS_VALUE

If DeadBand value is specified for the Group, the;

  • DeadbandType = Percent
  • DeadbandValue = deadband specified for the group.

The COM UA Proxy calls the Publish Service of the OPC UA Server periodically and sends any data changes to the client.