This part of OPC 10000 summarises the OPC Unified Architecture Field Level Communications Initiative field extensions referred to as Field eXchange (UAFX). Reading this document helps understand the basic concepts of UAFX and how the remaining parts of this multi-part document set specify them. Each of the other parts is briefly explained. This part is non-normative.

This release of the UAFX specifications is focused on Controller-to-Controller communication (see 6.1) to exchange process and configuration/parameterisation data (non-safety and safety) using OPC UA PubSub in combination with UAFX Connections and basic diagnostics. A future version of the UAFX specifications is expected to address other communication interactions (see 5.3) and OPC UA Client Server for UAFX data exchange.