OPC UA provides a framework that can be used to represent complex information as Objects in an AddressSpace which can be accessed with standard services. These Objects consist of Nodes connected by References. Different classes of Nodes convey different semantics. For example, a Variable Node represents a value that can be read or written. The Variable Node has an associated DataType that can define the actual value, such as a string, float, structure etc. It can also describe the Variable value as a variant. A Method Node represents a function that can be called. Every Node has a number of Attributes including a unique identifier called a NodeId and non-localized name called as BrowseName. An Object representing a ‘Reservation’ is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 – A Basic Object in an OPC UA Address Space
Object and Variable Nodes represent instances and they always reference a TypeDefinition (ObjectType or VariableType) Node which describes their semantics and structure. Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between an instance and its TypeDefinition.
The type Nodes are templates that define all of the children that can be present in an instance of the type. In the example in Figure 4 the PersonType ObjectType defines two children: First Name and Last Name. All instances of PersonType are expected to have the same children with the same BrowseNames. Within a type the BrowseNames uniquely identify the children. This means Client applications can be designed to search for children based on the BrowseNames from the type instead of NodeIds. This eliminates the need for manual reconfiguration of systems if a Client uses types that multiple Servers implement.
OPC UA also supports the concept of sub-typing. This allows a modeller to take an existing type and extend it. There are rules regarding sub-typing defined in OPC 10000-3, but in general they allow the extension of a given type or the restriction of a DataType. For example, the modeller may decide that the existing ObjectType in some cases needs an additional Variable. The modeller can create a subtype of the ObjectType and add the Variable. A Client that is expecting the parent type can treat the new type as if it was of the parent type. Regarding DataTypes, subtypes can only restrict. If a Variable is defined to have a numeric value, a sub type could restrict it to a float.
Figure 4 – The Relationship between Type Definitions and Instances
References allow Nodes to be connected in ways that describe their relationships. All References have a ReferenceType that specifies the semantics of the relationship. References can be hierarchical or non-hierarchical. Hierarchical references are used to create the structure of Objects and Variables. Non-hierarchical are used to create arbitrary associations. Applications can define their own ReferenceType by creating subtypes of an existing ReferenceType. Subtypes inherit the semantics of the parent but may add additional restrictions. Figure 5 depicts several References, connecting different Objects.
Figure 5 – Examples of References between Objects
The figures above use a notation that was developed for the OPC UA specification. The notation is summarized in Figure 6. UML representations can also be used; however, the OPC UA notation is less ambiguous because there is a direct mapping from the elements in the figures to Nodes in the AddressSpace of an OPC UA Server.
Figure 6 – The OPC UA Information Model Notation
A complete description of the different types of Nodes and References can be found in OPC 10000-3 and the base structure is described in OPC 10000-5.
OPC UA specification defines a very wide range of functionality in its basic information model. It is not expected that all Clients or Servers support all functionality in the OPC UA specifications. OPC UA includes the concept of Profiles, which segment the functionality into testable certifiable units. This allows the definition of functional subsets (that are expected to be implemented) within a companion specification. The Profiles do not restrict functionality, but generate requirements for a minimum set of functionalities (see OPC 10000-7)
OPC UA allows information from many different sources to be combined into a single coherent AddressSpace. Namespaces are used to make this possible by eliminating naming and id conflicts between information from different sources. Namespaces in OPC UA have a globally unique string called a NamespaceUri and a locally unique integer called a NamespaceIndex. The NamespaceIndex is only unique within the context of a Session between an OPC UA Client and an OPC UA Server. The Services defined for OPC UA use the NamespaceIndex to specify the Namespace for qualified values.
There are two types of values in OPC UA that are qualified with Namespaces: NodeIds and QualifiedNames. NodeIds are globally unique identifiers for Nodes. This means the same Node with the same NodeId can appear in many Servers. This, in turn, means Clients can have built in knowledge of some Nodes. OPC UA Information Models generally define globally unique NodeIds for the TypeDefinitions defined by the Information Model.
QualifiedNames are non-localized names qualified with a Namespace. They are used for the BrowseNames of Nodes and allow the same names to be used by different information models without conflict. TypeDefinitions are not allowed to have children with duplicate BrowseNames; however, instances do not have that restriction.
An OPC UA companion specification for an industry specific vertical market describes an Information Model by defining ObjectTypes, VariableTypes, DataTypes and ReferenceTypes that represent the concepts used in the vertical market, and potentially also well-defined Objects as entry points into the AddressSpace.
The OPC 10000-100 specification is an extension of the overall OPC Unified Architecture specification series and defines the information model associated with Devices. The model is intended to provide a unified view of Devices irrespective of the underlying Device protocols. Controllers are physical or logical Devices and the Devices model is therefore used as base for the IEC 61131-3 information model.
The Devices information model specifies different ObjectTypes and procedures used to represent Devices and related components like the communication infrastructure in an OPC UA Address Space. The main use cases are Device configuration and diagnostic, but it allows a general and standardized way for any kind of application to access Device related information. The following examples illustrate the concepts used in this specification. See OPC 10000-100 for the complete definition of the Devices information model.
Figure 7 shows an example for a temperature controller represented as Device Object. The component ParameterSet contains all Variables describing the Device. The component MethodSet contains all Methods provided by the Device. Both components are inherited from the TopologyElementType which is the root Object type of the Device Object type hierarchy. Objects of the type FunctionalGroupType are used to group the Parameters and Methods of the Device into logical groups. The FunctionalGroupType and the grouping concept are defined in OPC 10000-100 but the groups are Device type specific i.e. the groups ProcessData and Configuration are defined by the TemperatureControllerType in this example.
Figure 7 – OPC UA Devices Example
Another OPC 10000-100 concept used in this specification is described in Figure 8. The ConfigurableObjectType is used to provide a way to group subcomponents of a Device and to indicate which types of subcomponents can be instantiated. The allowed types are referenced from the SupportedTypes folder. This information can be used by configuration clients to allow a user to select the type to instantiate as subcomponent of the Device.
Figure 8 – OPC UA Devices Example
The SupportedTypes Folder can contain different subsets of ObjectTypes for different instances of the ModularControlerType depending on their current configuration since the list contains only types that can be instantiated for the current configuration. The example expects that only one CPU can be used in the ModularControlerType and this CPU is already configured. The SupportedTypes Folder on the ModularControlerType contains all possible types including CPU types that can be used in the ModularControlerType.