OPC UA & DDS Convergence White Paper
A Converged Approach to Standards for Industrial Automation
A NEW ARCHITECTURE PROPOSAL TO INTEGRATE OPC UA, DDS & TSN
ABSTRACT
Suppliers and end users need a complete solution to address the complexity of future industrial automation systems.
These systems require:
• Interoperability to allow devices and independent software applications from multiple suppliers to work together seamlessly
• Extensibility to incorporate future large or intelligent systems
• Performance and flexibility to handle challenging deployments and use cases
• Robustness to guarantee continuity of operation despite partial failures
• Integrity and fine-grained security to protect against cyber attacks
• Widespread support for an industry standard
The industry needs a clear, technically optimal, proven standards approach. This document proposes a new technical architecture to build this future. The design combines the best of the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), Data Distribution Service (DDS), and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards. It will connect the factory floor to the enterprise, sensors to cloud, and real-time devices to work cells. This proposal aims to define and standardize the architecture to unify the industry.