Using standard components in automation industry: A study on OPC Specification

This paper focuses on automation software integration issues based on standard OPC Components in the automation industry. OPC Specification is a set of published connectivity interfaces that enables integrators to connect disparate systems together. It has become de facto standard for the automation industry because of the widely acknowledged benefits it offers. In this paper, a typical multi-tier architecture of industrial automation system and the component-based SCADA software system are introduced simply at first. Then, an overview of OPC family and the issues on which individual OPC Specification focuses are presented. By carefully studying the reasons why OPC gets success in detail, it's first time as we know, from the point of definition, implementation, and usage of OPC Component, we propose some fairly impersonal opinions and get some valuable experiences. At last, an integration framework with OPC to the core and its integration approaches for constructing the distributed SCADA software system are described. The proposed integration solutions which use off-the-self OPC products available will enable integrators to create robust solutions and provide true interoperability while at the same time reducing implementation time and costs.