The UADP message mapping uses optimized OPC UA Binary encoding defined in OPC 10000-6 and provides message security for OPC UA PubSub. The available protocol mappings are defined in 7.3.

The UADP message mapping defines different optional header fields, variations of field settings and different DataSetMessage types and data encodings. Available layouts with standard settings and the corresponding URI Strings for UADP are defined in A.2.

Some optional fields like timestamps provide information that is not necessary for the processing of the messages on the Subscriber side. Other optional fields like PublisherId, DataSetWriterId or sizes of DataSetMessages are typically necessary for the processing of messages in generic Subscribers. If such fields are not present, the Subscriber must know the missing information from the DataSetReader configuration. One scenario is that a Publisher is sending NetworkMessages with a fixed layout of the payload. In this case the DataSetWriterId, the offset and size of the DataSetMessages is known from the DataSetReader configuration. The identification is done in this case by the group header with the WriterGroupId and NetworkMessageNumber. The UADP-Periodic-Fixed header layout for this scenario is defined in A.2.1.

The flexibility of the optional fields is necessary to support different use cases but it also allows the configuration of invalid combinations. To reduce the number of combinations used in common use cases, Annex A defines standard UADP header layouts with defined settings for common use cases. Custom configurations can be used but they should be limited to applications that do not fall into these use cases.

A Publisher should support all variations it allows through configuration. The required set of features is defined through profiles in OPC 10000-7.

A Subscriber shall be able to process all possible NetworkMessages and shall be able to skip information the Subscriber is not interested in. The Subscriber may not support all security policies. The capabilities related to processing different DataSet encodings is defined in OPC 10000-7.

The fields in the following protocol definition tables are encoded using the OPC UA Binary encoding rules defined in OPC 10000-6 including arrays. If the brackets for an array are not empty, the length field is omitted from the encoding and the length information is provided through additional definitions.

The mapping of MessageTypes to UADP NetworkMessage type and the reference to the detailed definition is listed in Table 152.

Table 152 – UADP MessageType mapping

MessageType

UADP NetworkMessage type

Specification Reference

DataSetMessage

DataSetMessage payload

Defined in 7.2.5.3 and 7.2.5.4.

DataSetMetaData

Discovery DataSetMetaData announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.4.

ApplicationDescription

Discovery Application description announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.5.

ServerEndpoints

Discovery Publisher Endpoints announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.6.

Status

Discovery status announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.7.

PubSubConnection

Discovery PubSubConnection configuration announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.8.

ActionRequest

Action request message

Defined in 7.2.4.5.9

ActionResponse

Action response message

Defined in 7.2.4.5.10

ActionMetaData

Discovery ActionMetaData announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.11

ActionResponder

Discovery ActionResponder configuration announce

Defined in 7.2.4.6.10

The discovery announce messages are required to send discovery information from the Publishers to the Subcribers. The probe messages are used for broker-less transport protocols like UDP or a Message Oriented Middleware where retained messages are not available.

The PubSub communication parameters defined in Clause 6 provide the settings for mapping information from the Publisher into DataSetMessages, settings to send them in NetworkMessages to the Subscribers and settings to process the DataSetMessages on the Subscriber side.

The error handling for the status codes in DataSetMessage headers and DataSetMessage fields is defined in 6.2.11 and 6.2.4.2. This handling of information flows and status codes assumes that the configuration between Publisher and Subscriber is in sync.

In several combinations of settings for the DataSetMessages and NetworkMessages, a Subscriber is able to process received messages without further knowledge of the Publisher side configuration. But most Subscribers need at least the DataSetMetaData to be able to process the received DataSetMessages.

The Publisher side configuration implies two types of contracts necessary for the Subscriber to process messages. The one type of contract is the DataSetMetaData describing the content of a DataSetMessage. The other type of contract provides the communication settings like the DataSetWriterId or offsets inside NetworkMessages. Both type of contracts provide version information that can be included into the DataSetMessages and NetworkMessages.

Several settings in the contracts have corresponding flags or version fields in the messages and a Subscriber can detect mismatches between the contract and the received messages.

The error handling depends on the Subscriber applications. Subscribers that are configured to process certain DataSetMessages often work with a known contract and they will typically drop messages that do not comply with the contract. At the same time they will try to get an update of the contract and will try to adjust its own settings to the updated contract if this is possible. Some changes may need manual reconfiguration of the Subscriber.

But Subscribers may also work without a known contract or may accept some differences between the contract and the actual message layout without dropping messages.

One exception is the security configuration. A Subscriber shall drop all messages where the configured SecurityMode has a lower number than the received SecurityMode. E.g. if the Subscriber is configured for SecurityMode SIGN it shall drop messages with NONE. A Subscriber may process messages with a higher SecurityMode e.g. it is allowed to process messages with SecurityMode SIGN if it is configured for NONE.

The UADP NetworkMessage header and other parts of the NetworkMessage are shown in Figure 32.

When using security, the payload and the Padding field are encrypted and after that, the whole NetworkMessage is signed if signing and encryption is active. The NetworkMessage shall be signed without being encrypted if only the signing is active.

The UADP NetworkMessage does not provide the total message size. It is expected that the message size is known from the transport protocol mapping. If the transport protocol mapping does not provide the size of the payload, an additional size information must be added in front of the UADP NetworkMessage for that transport protocol.

image035.png

Figure 32 – UADP NetworkMessage

The encoding of the UADP NetworkMessage is specified in Table 153.

The NetworkMessageContentMask setting of the Publisher controls the flags in the fields UADPFlags and ExtendedFlags1. The SecurityMode setting of the Publisher controls the security enabled flag of the ExtendedFlags1. The setting of the flags shall not change until the configuration of the Publisher is changed.

Table 153 – UADP NetworkMessage

Name

Type

Description

UADPVersion

Bit[0-3]

Bit range 0-3: Version of the UADP NetworkMessage.

The UADPVersion for this specification version is 1.

UADPFlags

Bit[4-7]

Bit 4: PublisherId enabled

If the PublisherId is enabled, the type of PublisherId is indicated in the ExtendedFlags1 field.If the PublisherId is enabled is false, the ExtendedFlags1 PublisherId Type flags shall be false.

Bit 5: GroupHeader enabled

Bit 6: PayloadHeader enabled

Bit 7: ExtendedFlags1 enabledThe bit shall be false, if ExtendedFlags1 is 0.

ExtendedFlags1

Byte

The ExtendedFlags1 shall be omitted if bit 7 of the UADPFlags is false.

If the field is omitted, the Subscriber shall handle the related bits as false.

Bit range 0-2: PublisherId Type

000 The PublisherId is of DataType Byte This is the default value if ExtendedFlags1 is omitted

001 The PublisherId is of DataType UInt16

010 The PublisherId is of DataType UInt32

011 The PublisherId is of DataType UInt64

100 The PublisherId is of DataType String

101 Reserved

11x ReservedReserved values shall not be used by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages when reserved values are received.

The PublisherId Type shall be ignored if bit 4 of the UADPFlags is false.

Bit 3: DataSetClassId enabled

Bit 4: SecurityHeader enabled

If this flag is enabled, the NetworkMessage header includes the SecurityHeader, otherwise the SecurityHeader is omitted.

If the SecurityMode in the configuration is SIGN or SIGNANDENCRYPT, this flag shall be set.

Bit 5: Timestamp enabled

Bit 6: PicoSeconds enabled

This bit shall be false if the Timestamp bit is false.

Bit 7: ExtendedFlags2 enabled

The bit shall be false, if ExtendedFlags2 is 0.

ExtendedFlags2

Byte

The ExtendedFlags2 shall be omitted if bit 7 of the ExtendedFlags1 is false.

If the field is omitted, the Subscriber shall handle the related bits as false.

Bit 0: Chunk message defined in in 7.2.4.4.4.

Bit 1: PromotedFields enabled

If Promoted fields are enabled, the number of DataSetMessages in the Network Message shall be one.

Bit range 2-4: UADP NetworkMessage type

000 NetworkMessage with DataSetMessage payload defined in 7.2.4.4.4. If the ExtendedFlags2 field is not provided, this is the default NetworkMessage type.

001 NetworkMessage with discovery probe defined in 7.2.4.5.4.

010 NetworkMessage with discovery announcement payload defined in 7.2.4.6.

011 Reserved

1xxReserved

Reserved values shall not be used by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages when reserved values are received.

Bit 5: ActionHeader enabled

Bit 6: Reserved

Bit 7: Reserved for further extended flag fields

Reserved bits shall be set to false by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages where the reserved bits are not false.

PublisherId

Byte[*]

The PublisherId shall be omitted if bit 4 of the UADPFlags is false.

The Id of the Publisher that sent the data. Valid DataTypes are UInteger and String.

The DataType is indicated by bits 0-2 of the ExtendedFlags1.

A Subscriber can skip NetworkMessages from Publishers it does not expect NetworkMessages from.

PublisherIds are only equal if they have the same DataTypes and equal values.

For ActionRequest and ActionResponse messages, the PublisherId of the Responder is used for request and response.

DataSetClassId

Guid

The DataSetClassId associated with the DataSets in the NetworkMessage.

All DataSetMessages in the NetworkMessage shall have the same DataSetClassId.

The DataSetClassId shall be omitted if bit 3 of the ExtendedFlags1 is false.

GroupHeader

The group header shall be omitted if bit 5 of the UADPFlags is false.

GroupFlags

Byte

Bit 0: WriterGroupId enabled

Bit 1: GroupVersion enabled

Bit 2: NetworkMessageNumber enabled

Bit 3: SequenceNumber enabled

Bits 4-6: Reserved

Bit 7: Reserved for further extended flag fields

Reserved bits shall be set to false by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages where the reserved bits are not false.

WriterGroupId

UInt16

Unique id for the WriterGroup in the Publisher.

A Subscriber can skip NetworkMessages from WriterGroups it does not expect NetworkMessages from.

This field shall be omitted if bit 0 of the GroupFlags is false.

GroupVersion

VersionTime

Version of the header and payload layout configuration of the NetworkMessages sent for the group.

This field shall be omitted if bit 1 of the GroupFlags is false.

NetworkMessage Number

UInt16

Unique number of a NetworkMessage across the combination of PublisherId and WriterGroupId within one PublishingInterval.

The number is needed if the DataSetMessages for one group are split into more than one NetworkMessage in a PublishingInterval.

The value 0 is invalid.

This field shall be omitted if bit 2 of the GroupFlags is false.

SequenceNumber

UInt16

Sequence number for each new NetworkMessage as defined in 7.2.3.

This field shall be omitted if bit 3 of the GroupFlags is false.

PayloadHeader

Byte [*]

The payload header depends on the UADP NetworkMessage type flags defined in the ExtendedFlags2 bit range 2-4. The default is DataSetMessage if the ExtendedFlags2 field is not enabled.

The PayloadHeader shall be omitted if bit 6 of the UADPFlags is false.

The PayloadHeader is not contained in the payload but it is contained in the unencrypted NetworkMessage header since it contains information necessary to filter DataSetMessages on the Subscriber side.

If the payload header is not present for DataSetMessages, the Subscriber must know the number and size of DataSetMessages from the DataSetReader configuration. The group header is the default option to provide a reference to this information in the NetworkMessage. In this case the number and size of the DataSetMessages is known from the DataSetReader configuration for the combination of WriterGroupId and NetworkMessageNumber.

Timestamp

DateTime

The time the NetworkMessage was created.

The Timestamp shall be omitted if bit 5 of ExtendedFlags1 is false.

The PublishingInterval, the SamplingOffset the PublishingOffset and the Timestamp and PicoSeconds in the NetworkMessage header shall use the same time base.

PicoSeconds

UInt16

Specifies the number of 10 picosecond (1,0 e-11 seconds) intervals which shall be added to the Timestamp.

The PicoSeconds field stores the difference between a high-resolution timestamp with a resolution of 10 picoseconds and the Timestamp field value which only has a 100 ns resolution. The PicoSeconds field shall contain values less than 10 000. The decoder shall treat values greater than or equal to 10 000 as the value ‘9999’.

The PicoSeconds shall be omitted if bit 6 of ExtendedFlags1 is false.

PromotedFields

The PromotedFields shall be omitted if bit 1 of the ExtendedFlags2 is false.

If the PromotedFields are provided, the number of DataSetMessages in the Network Message shall be one.

Size

UInt16

Total size in Bytes of the Fields contained in the PromotedFields.

Fields

BaseDataType[ ]

Array of promoted fields. The size, order and DataTypes of the fields depend on the settings in the FieldMetaData of the DataSetMetaData associated with the DataSetMessage contained in the NetworkMessage.

SecurityHeader

The security header shall be omitted if bit 4 of the ExtendedFlags1 is false.

SecurityFlags

Byte

Bit 0: NetworkMessage Signed

Bit 1: NetworkMessage EncryptedThe configuration options for MessageSecurityMode are NONE, SIGN and SIGNANDENCRYPT. Therefore bit 0 shall be true if bit 1 is true.

Bit 2: SecurityFooter enabled

Bit 3: Force key reset

This bit is set if all keys will be made invalid. It is set until the new key is used. The Publisher needs to give Subscribers a reasonable time to request new keys. The minimum time is five times the KeepAliveTime configured for the corresponding PubSub group.

This flag is typically set if all keys are invalidated to exclude Subscribers, who no longer have access to the keys.

Bit range 4-7: Reserved

Reserved bits shall be set to false by the the sender and the receiver shall skip messages where the reserved bits are not false.

SecurityTokenId

IntegerId

The ID of the security token that identifies the security key in a SecurityGroup. The relation to the SecurityGroup is done through DataSetWriterIds contained in the NetworkMessage.

If bit 1 and 2 of the SecurityFlags are 0, the SecurityTokenId shall be 0.

NonceLength

Byte

The length of the Nonce used to initialize the encryption algorithm.

If bit 1 and 2 of the SecurityFlags are 0, the NonceLength shall be 0.

MessageNonce

Byte [NonceLength]

A number used exactly once for a given security key. For a given security key a unique nonce shall be generated for every NetworkMessage. The rules for constructing the MessageNonce are defined for the UADP Message Security in 7.2.4.4.3.

SecurityFooterSize

UInt16

The size of the SecurityFooter.

The security footer size shall be omitted if bit 2 of the SecurityFlags is false.

ActionHeader

The Action header shall be omitted if bit 5 of the ExtendedFlags2 is false.

The header shall be enabled for ActionRequest and ActionResponse NetworkMessages.

The Action execution sequences and execution related request and response message values are defined in 6.2.11.2.

ActionFlags

Byte

Bit 0: If enabled, the NetworkMessage is a ActionRequest. If disabled, the NetworkMessage is a ActionResponse

Bit 1: ResponseAddress enabled

Bit 2: CorrelationData enabled

Bit 3: RequestorId enabled

Bit 4: TimeoutHint enabled

Bits 5-6: Reserved

Bit 7: Reserved for further extended flag fields

Reserved bits shall be set to false by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages where the reserved bits are not false.

ResponseAddress

String

The address used to send the Response messages.

This value shall be omitted for Response messages.

The handling of the ResponseAddress and default values are defined for the different transport protocol mappings.

CorrelationData

ByteString

Data provided by the Requestor in the Request message that is returned to the Requestor in the Response message.

RequestorId

BaseDataType

The PublisherId of the Requestor.

TimeoutHint

Duration

The timeout used by the Requestor to wait for a Response messages and by the Responder to stop processing the request.

This value is mandatory for the Request message.

This value is not used for Response messages.

Payload

Byte [*]

The payload depends on the UADP NetworkMessage Type flags defined in the ExtendedFlags2 bit range 2-4 and on the Chunk flag defined in the. ExtendedFlags2 bit 0.

SecurityFooter

Byte [*]

Optional security footer shall be omitted if bit 2 of the SecurityFlags is false.

The content of the security footer is defined by the SecurityPolicy.

Signature

Byte [*]

The signature of the NetworkMessage.

The security algorithms used and the length of the KeyNonce for the UADP NetworkMessage depend on the selected SecurityPolicy. The algorithms are defined by SymmetricEncryptionAlgorithm and SymmetricSignatureAlgorithm in OPC 10000-7. The nonce length is part of the SymmetricEncryptionAlgorithm.

The keys used to encrypt and sign messages are extracted from the key data returned from the GetSecurityKeys method (see 8.3.2). This Method returns a sequence of key data with a length that depends on the SecurityPolicyUri, which is also returned by the Method. The layout of the key data is defined in Table 154.

Table 154 – Layout of the key data for UADP message security

Name

Type

Description

SigningKey

Byte [SymmetricSignatureAlgorithm Key Length]

Signing key part of the key data returned from GetSecurityKeys. The SymmetricSignatureAlgorithm is defined in the SecurityPolicy.

EncryptingKey

Byte [SymmetricEncryptionAlgorithm Key Length]

Encryption key part of the key data returned from GetSecurityKeys. The SymmetricEncryptionAlgorithm is defined in the SecurityPolicy.

KeyNonce

Byte [SymmetricEncryption Nonce Length]

Nonce part of the key data returned from GetSecurityKeys.

The layout of the MessageNonce for AES-CTR mode is defined in Table 155.

Table 155 – Layout of the MessageNonce for AES-CTR

Name

Type

Description

Random

Byte [4]

The random part of the MessageNonce. This number does not need to be a cryptographically random number, it can be pseudo-random.

SequenceNumber

UInt32

Sequence number for the MessageNonce as defined in 7.2.3.

The sequence number is reset to 1 after the key and SecurityTokenId are updated in the Publisher.

The message encryption and decryption with AES-CTR mode uses a secret and a counter block. The secret is the EncryptingKey from the key data defined in Table 154. The layout and content of the counter block is defined in Table 156.

Table 156 – Layout of the counter block for UADP message security for AES-CTR

Name

Type

Description

KeyNonce

Byte [4]

The KeyNonce portion of the key data returned from GetSecurityKeys.

MessageNonce

Byte [8]

The first 8 bytes of the Nonce in the SecurityHeader of the NetworkMessage.

For AES-CTR mode the length of the SecurityHeader Nonce shall be 8 Bytes.

BlockCounter

Byte [4]

The counter for each encrypted block of the NetworkMessage.

The counter is a 32-bit big endian integer (the opposite of the normal encoding for UInt32 values in OPC UA. This convention comes from the AES-CTR RFC).

The counter starts with 1 at the first block. The counter is incremented by 1 for each block.

AES-CTR mode takes the counter block and encrypts it using the encrypting key. The encrypted key stream is then logically XORed with the data to encrypt or decrypt. The process is repeated for each block in plain text. No padding is added to the end of the plain text. AES-CTR does not change the size of the plain text data and can be applied directly to a memory buffer containing the message.

The signature is calculated on the entire NetworkMessage including any encrypted data. The signature algorithm is specified by the SecurityPolicyUri in OPC 10000-7.

When a Subscriber or a Publisher receives a NetworkMessage, it shall verify the signature before processing the payload. If verification fails, it drops the NetworkMessage.

Other SecurityPolicy may specify different key lengths or cryptography algorithms.

If a NetworkMessage payload with a DataSetMessage need to be split across multiple NetworkMessages, the chunks are sent in multiple NetworkMessages. The PayloadHeader of each NetworkMessage contains the payload header defined in Table 157. The Payload of each NetworkMessage contains the payload defined in Table 158. A chunk NetworkMessage can only contain chunked payload of one DataSetMessage.

If a NetworkMessage payload with a discovery announcement message has to be split across multiple NetworkMessages the chunks are sent with the payload defined in Table 158. The payload header is disabled for discovery probe and discovery announcement NetworkMessages.

Table 157 – Chunked NetworkMessage payload header

Name

Type

Description

DataSetWriterId

UInt16

DataSetWriterId contained in the NetworkMessage.

The DataSetWriterId identifies the PublishedDataSet and the DataSetWriter responsible for sending Messages for the DataSet.

A Subscriber can skip DataSetMessages from DataSetWriters it does not expect DataSetMessages from.

Table 158 – Chunked NetworkMessage payload fields

Name

Type

Description

MessageSequenceNumber

UInt16

Sequence number of the payload as defined for the NetworkMessage type like DataSetMessageSequenceNumber in a DataSetMessage.

NetworkMessages may be received out of order. In this case, a chunk for the next payload can be received before the last chunk of the previous payload was received.

If the next sequence number is received by a Subscriber that can handle only one payload, the chunks of the previous payload are skipped if they are not completely received yet.

ChunkOffset

UInt32

The byte offset position of the chunk in the complete NetworkMessage payload. The last chunk is detected if ChunkOffset plus the size of the current chunk equals TotalSize.

All chunks, except for the last one shall have the same size. The size of all chunks other than the last one can be used to calculate the number of expected chunks.

The reassembled NetworkMessage payload can be processed after all chunks are received.

Depending on the transport protocol mapping, the chunks may be received out of order and the last chunk may be received before all other chunks are received.

TotalSize

UInt32

Total size of the NetworkMessage payload in bytes.

ChunkData

ByteString

The pieces of the original DataSetMessage or the discovery announcement message are copied into the chunk until the maximum size allowed for a single NetworkMessage is reached minus space for the signature. The data copied into next chunk starts with the byte after the last byte copied into current chunk.

A DataSetMessage or discovery announcement message is completely received when all chunks are received and the message can be processed completely.

The UADP DataSet payload header and other parts of the NetworkMessage are shown in Figure 33.

Different types of DataSetMessage can be combined in on NetworkMessage.

image036.png

Figure 33 – UADP DataSet payload

The encoding of the UADP DataSet payload header is specified in Table 159. The payload header is unencrypted. This header shall be omitted if bit 6 of the UADPFlags is false.

Table 159 – UADP DataSet payload header

Name

Type

Description

Count

Byte

Number of DataSetMessages contained in the NetworkMessage. The NetworkMessage shall contain at least one DataSetMessage if the NetworkMessage type is DataSetMessage payload.

DataSetWriterIds

UInt16 [Count]

List of DataSetWriterIds contained in the NetworkMessage. The size of the list is defined by the Count.

The DataSetWriterId identifies the PublishedDataSet and the DataSetWriter responsible for sending Messages for the DataSet.

A Subscriber can skip DataSetMessages from DataSetWriters it does not expect DataSetMessages from.

The DataSet payload is defined in Table 160. The payload is encrypted.

Table 160 – UADP DataSet payload

Name

Type

Description

Sizes

UInt16 [Count]

List of byte sizes of the DataSetMessages.

The size of the list is defined by the Count in the DataSet payload header.

If the payload size exceeds 65535, the DataSetMessages shall be allocated to separate NetworkMessages. If a single DataSetMessage exceeds the payload size it shall be split into Chunk NetworkMessages.

This field shall be omitted if count is one or if bit 6 of the UADPFlags is false.

DataSetMessages

DataSetMessage [Count]

DataSetMessages contained in the NetworkMessage. The size of the list is defined by the Count in the DataSet payload header.

The type of encoding used for the DataSetMessages is defined by the DataSetWriter.

The encodings for the DataSetMessage are defined in 7.2.4.5.4.

The DataSetMessage header structure and the relation to other parts in a NetworkMessage is shown in Figure 34.

image037.png

Figure 34 – DataSetMessage header structure

The encoding of the DataSetMessage header structure is specified in Table 161.

The DataSetFieldContentMask and the DataSetMessageContentMask settings of the DataSetWriter control the flags in the fields DataSetFlags1 and DataSetFlags2. The setting of the flags shall not change until the configuration of the DataSetWriter is changed.

Table 161 – DataSetMessage header structure

Name

Type

Description

DataSetFlags1

Byte

Bit 0: DataSetMessage is valid.

If this bit is set to false, the rest of this DataSetMessage is considered invalid, and shall not be processed by the Subscriber.

Bit range 1-2: Field Encoding

00 The DataSet fields are encoded as Variant The Variant can contain a StatusCode instead of the expected DataType if the status of the field is Bad. The Variant can contain a DataValue with the value and the statusCode if the status of the field is Uncertain.

01 RawData Field Encoding

The RawData field encoding is defined in 7.2.4.5.11.

10 DataValue Field Encoding

The DataSet fields are encoded as DataValue. This option is set if the DataSet is configured to send more than the Value.

11 Reserved

Reserved values shall not be used by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages when reserved values are received.

Bit 3: DataSetMessageSequenceNumber enabled

Bit 4: Status enabled

Bit 5: ConfigurationVersionMajorVersion enabled

Bit 6: ConfigurationVersionMinorVersion enabled

Bit 7: DataSetFlags2 enabled

The bit shall be false, if DataSetFlags2 is 0.

DataSetFlags2

Byte

The DataSetFlags2 shall be omitted if bit 7 of the DataSetFlags1 is false.

If the field is omitted, the Subscriber shall handle the related bits as false.

Bit range 0-3: UADP DataSetMessage type

0000Data Key Frame (see 7.2.4.5.5)

If the DataSetFlags2 field is not provided, this is the default DataSetMessage type.

0001Data Delta Frame (see 7.2.4.5.6)

0010Event (see 7.2.4.5.7)

0011Keep Alive (see 7.2.4.5.8)

0101ActionRequest (see 7.2.4.5.9)

0110ActionResponse (see 7.2.4.5.10)

0111Reserved

1xxxReserved

Reserved values shall not be used by the sender and the receiver shall skip messages when reserved values are received.

Bit 4: Timestamp enabled

Bit 5: PicoSeconds included in the DataSetMessage headerThis bit shall be false if the Timestamp bit is false.

Bit 6: Reserved

Bit 7: Reserved for further extended flag fields

Reserved bits shall be set to false by the Publisher and Subscribers shall skip messages where the reserved bits are not false.

DataSetMessage‌SequenceNumber

UInt16

Sequence number for each new DataSetMessage as defined in 7.2.3.

The field shall be omitted if Bit 3 of DataSetFlags1 is false.

Timestamp

UtcTime

The time the DataSetMessage was created.

The Timestamp shall be omitted if Bit 4 of DataSetFlags2 is false.

PicoSeconds

UInt16

Specifies the number of 10 picoseconds (1,0 e-11 seconds) intervals which shall be added to the Timestamp.

The PicoSeconds field stores the difference between a high-resolution timestamp with a resolution of 10 picoseconds and the Timestamp field value which only has a 100 ns resolution. The PicoSeconds field shall contain values less than 10 000. The decoder shall treat values greater than or equal to 10 000 as the value ‘9.999’.

The field shall be omitted if Bit 5 of DataSetFlags2 is false.

Status

UInt16

The overall status of the DataSetMessage. The dependencies to the status of DataSet fields are defined in Table 34.

This is the high order 16 bits of the StatusCode DataType representing the numeric value of the Severity and SubCode of the StatusCode DataType.

The field shall be omitted if Bit 4 of DataSetFlags1 is false.

ConfigurationVersion

MajorVersion

VersionTime

The major version of the configuration version of the DataSet used as consistency check with the DataSetMetaData available on the Subscriber side.

The field shall be omitted if Bit 5 of DataSetFlags1 is false.

ConfigurationVersion

MinorVersion

VersionTime

The minor version of the configuration version of the DataSet used as consistency check with the DataSetMetaData available on the Subscriber side.

The field shall be omitted if Bit 6 of DataSetFlags1 is false.

The data key frame DataSetMessage data and related headers are shown in Figure 35.

image038.png

Figure 35 – Data Key Frame DataSetMessage data

The encoding of the data key frame DataSetMessage structure is specified in Table 162.

If the key frame is a heartbeat DataSetMessage, only the header is encoded but the following structure shall not be encoded into the DataSetMessage. Generic Subscribers can detect heartbeat DataSetMessages if the DataSetMessage size equals the header size. If the DataSetMessage size is not part of the payload header, the DataSetMessage offset configuration is required on Subscriber side to identify a heartbeat DataSetMessage.

Table 162 – Data Key Frame DataSetMessage structure

Name

Type

Description

FieldCount

UInt16

Number of fields of the DataSet contained in the DataSetMessage.

The FieldCount shall be omitted if RawData field encoding is set in the EncodingFlags defined in 7.2.4.5.4.

DataSetFields

BaseDataType [FieldCount]

The field values of the DataSet.

The field encoding depends on the DataSetFlags1.Field Encoding of the DataSetMessage Header defined in 7.2.4.5.4. The default encoding is Variant if bit 1 and 2 are not set.

Padding

Byte [*]

Optional padding added if the encoded DataSetMessage is smaller than the ConfiguredSize. The DataSetMessage is padded with bytes with value zero.

The data delta frame DataSetMessage data and the related headers are shown in Figure 36.

image039.png

Figure 36 – Data Delta Frame DataSetMessage

The information for a single value in delta frame messages is larger because of the additional index necessary for sending just changed data. The Publisher shall send a key frame message if the delta frame message is larger than a key frame message.

The encoding of the data delta frame DataSetMessage structure is specified in Table 163.

Table 163 – Data Delta Frame DataSetMessage structure

Name

Type

Description

FieldCount

UInt16

Number of fields of the DataSet contained in the DataSetMessage.

DeltaFrameFields

Structure [FieldCount]

The subset of field values of the DataSet contained in the delta frame.

FieldIndex

UInt16

The index of the Field in the DataSet. The index is based on the field position in the DataSetMetaData with the configuration version defined in the ConfigurationVersion field.

A Publisher shall use an index only once in a DataSetMessage.

FieldValue

BaseDataType

The field values of the DataSet.

The field encoding depends on the DataSetFlags1.Field Encoding of the DataSetMessage Header defined in 7.2.4.5.4. The default encoding is Variant if bit 1 and 2 are not set.

Padding

Byte [*]

Optional padding added if the encoded DataSetMessage is smaller than the ConfiguredSize. The DataSetMessage is padded with bytes with value zero.

The Event DataSetMessage data and the related headers are shown in Figure 37.

image040.png

Figure 37 – Event DataSetMessage

The encoding of the Event DataSetMessage structure is specified in Table 164.

Table 164 – Event DataSetMessage structure

Name

Type

Description

FieldCount

UInt16

Number of fields of the DataSet contained in the DataSetMessage.

DataSetFields

BaseDataType [FieldCount]

The field values of the DataSet.

The fields of Event DataSetMessages shall be encoded as Variant.

The Field Encoding DataSetFlags1 of the DataSetMessage header (bit 1 and 2) defined in 7.2.4.5.4 shall be set to false.

Padding

Byte [*]

Optional padding added if the encoded DataSetMessage is smaller than the ConfiguredSize. The DataSetMessage is padded with bytes with value zero.

The keep-alive message does not add any additional fields. The message and the related headers are shown in Figure 38.

image041.png

Figure 38 – KeepAlive message

If the sequence number is contained in the header, the sequence number provides the next expected sequence number for the DataSetWriter.

The encoding of the Action request DataSetMessage structure is specified in Table 165.

Table 165 – Action request message structure

Name

Type

Description

ActionTargetId

UInt16

The numeric identifier assigned to the Action target which is unique within one ActionMetaData.

It is used to address the Action in combination with the PublisherId and the DataSetWriterId defined by the Responder.

RequestId

UInt16

Request identifier provided by the Requestor in the Request message that is returned to the Requestor in the Response message.

ActionState

Byte

Specifies the expected Action state on Responder side.

The ActionState enumeration value is encoded as Byte.

The details for the use of this value and the relation to other values for a Action execution is defined in 6.2.11.2.

FieldCount

UInt16

Number of fields of the DataSet contained in the DataSetMessage.

DataSetFields

BaseDataType [FieldCount]

The field values of the ActionRequest DataSet.

The fields of ActionRequest DataSetMessages shall be encoded as Variant or RawData.

Padding

Byte [*]

Optional padding added if the encoded DataSetMessage is smaller than the ConfiguredSize. The DataSetMessage is padded with bytes with value zero.

The encoding of the Action response DataSetMessage structure is specified in Table 166.

Table 166 – Action response message structure

Name

Type

Description

ActionTargetId

UInt16

The numeric identifier assigned to the Action target which is unique within one ActionMetaData.

It is used to address the Action in combination with the PublisherId and the DataSetWriterId defined by the Responder.

RequestId

UInt16

Request identifier provided by the Requestor in the Request message that is returned to the Requestor in the Response message.

ActionState

Byte

The current state of this currently running Action.

The ActionState enumeration value is encoded as Byte.

The details for the use of this value and the relation to other values for a Action execution is defined in 6.2.11.2.

FieldCount

Uint16

Number of fields of the DataSet contained in the DataSetMessage.

DataSetFields

BaseDataType [FieldCount]

The field values of the ActionResponse DataSet.

The fields of ActionResponse DataSetMessages shall be encoded as Variant or RawData.

Padding

Byte [*]

Optional padding added if the encoded DataSetMessage is smaller than the ConfiguredSize. The DataSetMessage is padded with bytes with value zero.

The encoding of the DataSetMessage fields is handled like a Structure DataType where the DataSet fields are handled like Structure fields and fields with Structure DataType are handled like nested structures but in addition the fields are padded to the maximum size indicated by ArrayDimensions or MaxStringLength. The padding only applies to RawData field encoding.

All restrictions for the encoding of Structure DataTypes also apply to the RawData Field Encoding.

A DataSet field is encoded in the DataType and ValueRank specified in the DataSetMetaData for the DataSet. The following special handling shall be applied to ensure a fixed offset of the fields in the DataSetMessage.

  • If the DataType of a DataSet field or a Structure field is String or ByteString and the actual size is smaller than the maximum possible size indicated by the MaxStringLength, the field shall be padded with bytes with value zero.
  • If the ValueRank is OneDimension (1) or n>1 and the actual size of a dimension in ArrayDimensions is smaller than the maximum possible size indicated by the dimensions, the field shall be padded with bytes with value zero for each dimension.
  • If the DataSet field or Structure field is a Structure with optional fields, the EncodingMask is encoded followed by all fields. Any optional field that is not present is encoded as padding with bytes with value zero. The size of the padding equals to the size needed to encode the field if it were present.
  • If the DataSet field or Structure field is a Union, the encoding of the selected field is padded with bytes with value zero to the size of the longest Union field, when encoded using the rules in this chapter. The case when no field is selected is treated as if there was an encoded field whose encoded size is zero.
  • If the DataSet field or Structure field is an OptionSet, the length of the two ByteStrings in the OptionSet Structure is defined by highest bit number in the OptionSet definition.

The following restrictions apply to the RawData field encoding.

The DataSetMessage valid bit 0 in DataSetFlags1 shall be set to false if the fields do not fulfil these requirements at the time the DataSetMessage is created.

Discovery announcement messages are sent from the Publisher to the Subscribers and they can be sent through any Message Oriented Middleware and protocol mapping.

Discovery announcement messages are used to inform Subscribers about configuration changes in the Publisher. They are sent by the Publisher in the case of a configuration change. A Publisher can also be configured to send the discovery announcement messages periodically. A Message Oriented Middleware may be able to persist the latest announcement message for Subscribers.

Discovery probe messages are sent from Subscriber to Publisher and they are limited to Message Oriented Middleware and protocol mappings that support such a back channel. A discovery probe is typically answered with one or more discovery announcement messages.

Depending on the used Message Oriented Middleware and the protocol mapping, it may be possible and required for the Subscriber to request discovery announcement messages by sending discovery probe messages. One use case is a non reliable transport where the Subscriber did not receive the message or the Subscriber was not available at the time the Publisher sent the discovery announcement. Another use case is the collection of initial knowledge about a Publisher. Some discovery announcement messages may only be sent as result of a discovery probe message.

Discovery in a global scope requires unique PublisherIds. Publishers shall use the default PublisherIds as defined in 6.2.7.1 for the following discovery messages.

These messages use the standard discovery address if defined for the transport protocol mapping like the IANA registered IPv4 multicast address for UDP.

Other announcements below PubSubConnection level can use different PublisherIds for different transport protocol mappings. Such PubSubConnection specific PublisherIds could be two Byte PublisherIds for the Ethernet transport protocol mapping. These PublisherIds are known from the payload of the PubSubConnection configuration announcement messages.

The NetworkMessage flags used with the discovery announcement messages shall use the following bit values.

The setting of the flags ensures a known value for the first three bytes plus the PublisherId in the NetworkMessage, except for the Chunk bit 0 in ExtendedFlags2. The actual security settings for the NetworkMessage are indicated by the SecurityHeader.

The encoding of the discovery announcement header structure is specified in Table 167.

Table 167 – Discovery announcement header structure

Name

Type

Description

AnnouncementType

Byte

The following types of discovery announcement messages are defined.

0Reserved

1Publisher Endpoints message (see 7.2.4.6.6)

2DataSetMetaData message (see 7.2.4.6.4)

3DataSetWriter configuration message (see 7.2.4.6.9)

4PubSubConnection configuration message (see 7.2.4.6.8)

5 OPC UA Application information message (see Table 168)

6PubSubConnection configuration message (see 7.2.4.6.8)

SequenceNumber

UInt16

Sequence number, incremented by exactly one, for each discovery announcement sent in the scope of a PublisherId.

The encoding of the OPC UA Application information announcement message structure is specified in Table 168.

Table 168 – OPC UA Application information announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

ApplicationInformationType

UInt16

The following types of application information are defined.

0Reserved

1Application description (see 7.2.4.6.5)

2Status (see 7.2.4.6.7)

The encoding of the DataSet metadata message structure is specified in Table 169. It contains the current layout and DataSetMetaData for the DataSet.

The ConfigurationVersion in the DataSetMessage header shall match the ConfigurationVersion in the DataSetMetaData.

The Publisher shall send this message without a corresponding discovery probe if the DataSetMetaData changed for the DataSet.

Table 169 – DataSetMetaData announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

DataSetWriterId

UInt16

DataSetWriterId of the DataSet described with the MetaData.

MetaData

DataSetMetaDataType

The current DataSet metadata for the DataSet related to the DataSetWriterId. The DataSetMetaDataType is defined in 6.2.3.2.3.

statusCode

StatusCode

Status code indicating the capability of the Publisher to provide MetaData for the DataSetWriterId.

The encoding of the OPC UA Application description message fields for ApplicationInformationType equals 1 is specified in Table 170. It contains the ApplicationDescription and the capabilities.

Table 170 – ApplicationInformationType application description fields

Name

Type

Description

ApplicationDescription

ApplicationDescription

ApplicationDescription for the OPC UA Application. The ApplicationDescription DataType is defined in OPC 10000-4.

Capabilities

String[]

The list of capability identifiers for the application. The allowed capability identifiers are defined in OPC 10000-12.

The encoding of the available Server Endpoints of a Publisher is specified in Table 171.

Table 171 – Publisher Endpoints announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

Endpoints

EndpointDescription[]

The OPC UA Server Endpoints of the Publisher. The EndpointDescription is defined in OPC 10000-4.

The field is encoded as Array with number of elements encoded as Int32 value.

statusCode

StatusCode

Status code indicating the capability of the Publisher to provide Endpoints.

The encoding of the status message fields for ApplicationInformationType equals 2 is specified in Table 172.

Table 172 – ApplicationInformationType status fields

Name

Type

Description

IsCyclic

Boolean

If TRUE the Publisher periodically updates the status.

If FALSE the Middleware is responsible for detecting changes to the status.

Status

PubSubState

The current state of the PubSubConnection. This value is mandatory.

NextReportTime

UtcTime

When the Publisher expects to send the next update.

The field is present if IsCyclic=TRUE.

The field is not present if IsCyclic=FALSE.

Timestamp

UtcTime

When the message was sent to the Middleware.

The field is present if IsCyclic=TRUE.

The field is not present if IsCyclic=FALSE.

IsCyclic is set to FALSE if a PublisherId is used exclusively by a single application and the Message Oriented Middleware can detect when Publishers go offline. In these cases, the Publisher sends updates only when its state changes and the Message Oriented Middleware will send an update with PubSubState Error if the Publisher goes offline.

If IsCyclic is set to TRUE the Publisher only reports while they are Operational. The NextReportTime indicates when the Publisher will send an update. If the Subscriber does not receive updates and the NextReportTime is in the past, the Subscriber assumes the PubSubState Error.

The encoding of the PubSubConnection configuration announcement message structure is specified in Table 173. It contains an array of PubSubConnections configured in the OPC UA Application.

Table 173 – PubSubConnection configuration announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

PubSubConnections

PubSubConnectionDataType []

PubSubConnections configured for the OPC UA Application.

The PubSubConnectionDataType is defined in 6.2.7.5.1.

The ReaderGroup lists in PubSubConnectionDataType shall be empty.

The WriterGroup list shall be contained, if the IncludeWriterGroups is true in the PubSubConnection information probe message.

The DataSetWriter lists in the WriterGroups shall be contained, if the IncludeDataSetWriters is true in the PubSubConnection information probe message.

The configuration properties shall not be included in the PubSubConnectionDataType, WriterGroupDataType and DataSetWriterDataType.

The encoding of the DataSetWriter configuration data message structure is specified in Table 174. It contains the current configuration of the WriterGroup and the DataSetWriter for the DataSet.

The Publisher shall send this message without a corresponding discovery probe if the configuration of the WriterGroup changed.

Table 174 – DataSetWriter configuration announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

DataSetWriterIds

UInt16[]

DataSetWriterIds contained in the configuration information.

The field is encoded as Array with number of elements encoded as Int32 value.

DataSetWriterConfig

WriterGroupDataType

The current WriterGroup and DataSetWriter settings for the DataSet related to the DataSetWriterId. The WriterGroupDataType is defined in 6.2.6.7.

The field DataSetWriters of the WriterGroupDataType shall contain only the entry for the requested or changed DataSetWriters in the WriterGroup.

The configuration properties shall not be included in the WriterGroupDataType and DataSetWriterDataType.

statusCodes

StatusCode[]

Status codes indicating the capability of the Publisher to provide configuration information for the DataSetWriterIds. The size of the array shall match the size of the DataSetWriterIds array.

The encoding of the ActionResponder configuration announcement message structure is specified in Table 175. It contains an array of PubSubConnections configured in the OPC UA Application.

Table 175 – ActionResponder configuration announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

ActionResponder

PubSubConnectionDataType []

ActionResponder configured for the OPC UA Application.

The PubSubConnectionDataType is defined in 6.2.7.5.1.

Only DataSetWriters used for Actions are included. All WriterGroups and DataSetWriters not used for Actions shall be excluded.

The ReaderGroup lists in PubSubConnectionDataType shall be empty.

The WriterGroup list shall be contained, if the IncludeWriterGroups is true in the PubSubConnection information probe message.

The DataSetWriter lists in the WriterGroups shall be contained, if the IncludeDataSetWriters is true in the PubSubConnection information probe message.

The configuration properties shall not be included in the PubSubConnectionDataType, WriterGroupDataType and DataSetWriterDataType.

The encoding of the ActionMetaData message structure is specified in Table 176.

The Responder shall send this message without a corresponding discovery probe if the configuration of the Action changed.

Table 176 – ActionMetaData announcement message structure

Name

Type

Description

DataSetWriterId

UInt16

DataSetWriterId of the Actions described with the MetaData.

ActionTargets

ActionTargetDataType[]

The set of Action targets that may be executed.

If an Action target is mapped to a Method of an Object in an OPC UA Server, then the related Object and Method are defined by the corresponding entry in the ActionMethods array.

The ActionTargetId in the ActionTargetDataType is used to address the Method referenced by the ActionMethodDataType.

Request

DataSetMetaDataType

The structure and content of the ActionRequest message.

The name of the Action is defined by the Name field in the DataSetMetaDataType.

Response

DataSetMetaDataType

The structure and content of the ActionResponse message.

The fields Name and ConfigurationVersion of the Request and the Response DataSetMetaDataType shall have equal values.

ActionMethods

ActionMethodDataType[]

The optional array of Action sources. If the source information is provided, the array shall match the size and order of the ActionTargets.

The namespace URIs for the NamespaceIdex in the NodeIds shall be contained in the Request DataSetMetaData.

The NetworkMessage flags used with the discovery probe messages shall use the following bit values.

  • UADPFlags bits 5 and 6 shall be false, bits 4 and 7 shall be true
  • ExtendedFlags1 bits 3, 5 and 6 shall be false, bits 4 and 7 shall be true
  • ExtendedFlags2 bit 2 shall be true, all other bits shall be false

The setting of the flags ensures a known value for the first three bytes plus the PublisherId in the NetworkMessage on the Publisher as receiver. The actual security settings for the NetworkMessage are indicated by the SecurityHeader.

A variety of rules are used to reduce the amount of traffic on the network in the case of multicast or broadcast communication.

A Subscriber should cache configuration information for PublisherId and DataSetWriterIds of interest.

If a Subscriber requires information from Publishers after a startup or version change detection, discovery probes shall be randomly delayed in the range of 100 ms to 500 ms. The probe shall be skipped if the information is already received during this time or another Subscriber sent already a probe and the announcement to this probe is used.

A Subscriber shall wait for a announcement at least 500 ms. As long as not all announcements are received, the Subscriber requests the missing information. It should double the time period between following probes until all needed announcements are received or denied. The maximum period is Subscriber specific.

A Publisher shall delay subsequent announcements for a combination of probe type and identifier like the DataSetWriterId for at least 500 ms. Duplicate probes, that have not yet been responded to, shall be discarded by the Publisher. The maximum delay is Publisher specific.

If the Publisher receives discovery probes for different DataSetWriters in one WriterGroup, the Publisher shall send one aggregated discovery announcement.

The encoding of the discovery probe header structure is specified in Table 177.

Table 177 – Discovery probe header structure

Name

Type

Description

ProbeType

Byte

The following types of discovery probe messages are defined.

0Reserved

1 Publisher information probe message (see 7.2.4.6.12.4)

2FindApplications probe message.The message type does not have additional fields. The PublisherId is set to NULL.

The encoding of the Publisher information probe message structure is specified in Table 178.

Table 178 – Publisher information probe message structure

Name

Type

Description

InformationType

Byte

The following types of Publisher information probes are defined.

0Reserved

1 Publisher Server Endpoints

No additional fields are defined.

The information is provided with the Publisher Endpoints announcement message defined in 7.2.4.6.4.

2 DataSetMetaData

The settings for this InformationType are defined in Table 179.

The information is provided with the DataSetMetaData announcement message defined in 7.2.4.6.4.

3 DataSetWriter configuration

The settings for this InformationType are defined in Table 179.

The information is provided with the DataSetWriter configuration announcement message defined in 7.2.4.6.9.

4 WriterGroup configuration

The settings for this InformationType are defined in Table 180

The information is provided with the DataSetWriter configuration announcement message defined in 7.2.4.6.9.

5 PubSubConnections configuration

The settings for this InformationType are defined in Table 181

The information is provided with the PubSubConnection configuration announcement message defined in 7.2.4.6.7.

The additional field for DataSetWriter related InformationType in a Publisher information probe message are specified in Table 179.

Table 179 – DataSetWriter settings for Publisher information probe

Name

Type

Description

DataSetWriterIds

UInt16[]

List of DataSetWriterIds the information is requested for.

The field is encoded as Array with number of elements encoded as Int32 value.

For DataSetMetaData probes, the Publisher sends one discovery announcement NetworkMessage for each requested DataSetWriterId.

For DataSetWriter configuration probes, the DataSetWriters that belong to one WriterGroup are sent together in one DataSetWriter configuration message. If more than one WriterGroup is affected, this results in a DataSetWriter configuration message per WriterGroup.

The additional fields for WriterGroup related InformationType in a Publisher information probe message are specified in Table 180.

Table 180 – WriterGroup settings for Publisher information probe

Name

Type

Description

WriterGroupId

UInt16

This option allows a Publisher information probe for a WriterGroup and the contained DataSetWriters if only the WriterGroupId is known from NetworkMessages.

For WriterGroup configuration probes, the DataSetWriters that belong to the WriterGroup are sent together in one DataSetWriter configuration message.

IncludeDataSetWriters

Boolean

Flag indicating if the DataSetWriter should be contained in the PubSubConnection configuration announcement message.

The additional fields for PubSubConnection configuration in a Publisher information probe message are specified in Table 181.

Table 181 – PubSubConnections settings for Publisher information probe

Name

Type

Description

TransportProfileUris

String []

Filter criteria for the PubSubConnections to return in the PubSubConnection configuration announce message.

If TransportProfileUris are set, only PubSubConnection with matching TransportProfileUri shall be returned.

If the TransportProfileUris is null or empty, all PubSubConnections are returned.

IncludeWriterGroups

Boolean

Flag indicating if the WriterGroups should be contained in the PubSubConnection configuration announcement message.

IncludeDataSetWriters

Boolean

Flag indicating if the DataSetWriters should be contained in the PubSubConnection configuration announcement message.

This flag is ignored if IncludeWriterGroups is false.

Setting this flag increases the size of the PubSubConnection configuration announcement message and it is more likely that max message sizes are exceeded.