TSN/A Conference 2024
The OPC Foundation is again sponsoring this year’s TSN/A Conference in Stuttgart / Germany (October 1-2, 2024). A live multi-vendor demo will be displayed with OPC UA FX controller prototypes of Schneider Electric and B&R communicating over a common Ethernet TSN network infrastructure consisting of TSN switches provided by Hirschmann-Belden, Huawei and B&R. The controllers are using priority-based QoS traffic for Controller-to-Controller (C2C) communications in parallel to other data streams running through the network. A traffic generator is being used to generate a network overload situation and to prove that real-time critical data streams can still be transmitted without loss. As part of the conference, Thomas Schreck (Schneider Electric), chair of the FLC Test Development WG, will also give an update about the ongoing prototyping and test development activities of the FLC Initiative.
Picture: TSN Demo of the FLC Initiative
Link: https://events.pelemedia.de/tsna-conference
Exhibitor Guide SPS
The FLC Initiative of the OPC Foundation is planning an exhibitor guide to be published on occasion of the upcoming SPS show in Nuremberg (November 12-14, 2024.) In case you are or will be offering products, software components, hardware components or services for OPC UA FX, please contact Peter Lutz (peter.lutz@opcfoundation.org) so that the offer can be included in the guide.
Integration of OPC UA and OPC UA FX in 5G Networks
Against the background of the rapid evolution and networking capabilities of 5G, 5G-ACIA and the OPC Foundation have collaborated to create a white paper which evaluates the possibility of integrating OPC UA in it, focusing mainly on ways to support use cases involving OPC UA FX and Field-Level Communications (FLC), which have more demanding requirements in terms of network performance, functionality, and operation. It looks at the overall architecture, relevant interfaces, information model, procedures, and other crucial aspects of integrating OPC UA and 5G.
The white paper is available for download from the 5G-ACIA website:
https://5g-acia.org/whitepapers/integration-of-opc-ua-in-5g-networks/
There is also a presentation available from Dr. Xueli An, Huawei, that is available in Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOqJnJz8fbY
OPC UA FX Interoperability Workshop & Conformance Testing
The FLC Prototyping WG is organizing an Interoperability Workshop (IOP) at Unified Automation in Kalchreuth (Germany) on November 4-8, 2024. The objectives of the IOP are the testing of OPC UA FX controller prototypes and engineering tools with specific features, such as exchange of UAFX offline descriptors, use of Connection Configuration Sets (CCS), UAFX connection establishment, connection manager diagnostics and security features (GDS, SKS, Secure PubSub, Role-Based Access Control). Furthermore, OPC UA FX controller prototypes can undergo testing by the Compliance Test Tool (CTT) which is the official tool of the OPC UA FX Controller Validation Program.
OPC Foundation members that are interested to participate can contact Peter Lutz, FLC Director, peter.lutz@opcfoundation.org or Jan Murzyn, FLC Prototyping WG chair, jan.murzyn@mpl.mee.com