1. Purpose

2. The technology

3. Necessary developments

4. The history of OPC UA over TSN

5. Organization

6. Weblinks

7. References

8. Please review OPC UA TSN article

OPC UA over TSN (until 2018 known as OPC UA TSN) is a combination of technologies that allows vendor-agnostic transmission of industrial production data in real time using a uniform, open standard Industry experts view OPC UA over TSN as the communication protocol for Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things.^[1]

Purpose

Industrial manufacturing has traditionally relied on proprietary protocols like Profinet, EtherNet/IP, POWERLINK, EtherCAT, Profibus, Modbus and CAN for communication within and between machines. Communication between machines or components from different manufacturers has therefore required interfaces or gateways.

Implementation of Industry 4.0 requires seamlessly networked production processes. With the variety of protocols currently being used, this is hard to implement. What's needed is therefore a uniform communication standard that enables continuous communication from the field level all the way to the cloud. Numerous automation and IT companies are already implementing OPC UA over TSN in pilot products, including ABB, Bosch Rexroth, B&R, CISCO, Hilscher, Hirschmann, Huwei, Intel, Kalycito, KUKA, Mitsubishi Electric, Molex, National Instruments (NI), Omron, Phoenix Contact, Pilz, Parker Hannifin, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, TTTech, Wago and Yokogawa.^[2][3][4]

The technology

OPC UA TSN is built on two key pillars:

• OPC UA is an industrial communication protocol and data model that not only transmits data, but can describe it semantically.
• Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) refers to a set of sub-standards under the family of Ethernet standards.^[6] It adds real-time capability to data transmission via standard Ethernet. The following sub-standards are relevant for industrial use:
  • IEEE 802.1AS-Rev/D2.0 : Timing and synchronization for time-sensitive applications
  • IEEE 802.1CB : Frame replication and elimination for reliability
  • IEEE 802.1Qbv : Enhancement for scheduled traffic
  • IEEE 802.1Qci : Per-stream filtering and policing
  • IEEE 802.1Qcc : Stream reservation protocol (SRP) enhancements and performance improvements
  • IEEE 802.1Qbu : Frame preemption

The TSN specifications are part of the general Ethernet specifications. This standard is used in parts of the automotive industry. That means that the required semiconductor components will likely be available very quickly and relatively inexpensively.^[7]

Necessary developments

OPC UA and Ethernet TSN are continually being developed and improved to meet the demands of industrial manufacturing. The main focus has been on adding real-time capability to OPC UA. In order to support communication above the controller level, the following requirements need to be met:

• Deterministic timing with a maximum jitter under 100 ns
• Maximum cycle times of 50 µs - 2 ms^[8]

In addition to the development of time-sensitive networking, it was also necessary to add a publish/subscribe mechanism to OPC UA.^[9]

Until now, OPC UA has relied exclusively on a client/server mechanism, where a client requests information and receives a response from a server. This system has its limitations in cases when there are many nodes on the network. The publish-subscribe model, in contrast, enables one-to-many and many-to-many communication. A server sends its data to the network (publish) and every client can receive this data (subscribe). Combined with TSN, the publish-subscribe model helps OPC UA meet the real-time requirements of industrial applications. This has now been confirmed in testbeds by organizations such as the Industrial Internet Consortium and LNI.^[10] A scientific whitepaper proves that OPC UA over TSN is 18x faster than all previously available Industrial Ethernet protocols.^[11]

The history of OPC UA over TSN

• January 2010: Adoption of the 802.1qav standard as basis for audio/video applications (AVB)

• November 2012: Expansion of the field of application and renaming from AVB to TSN
• November 2016: Foundation of the OPC UA TSN initiative at the invitation of network specialist TTTech and automation manufacturer B&R. The companies involved later became known as the "shapers".^[12]
• April 2017: Belden/Hirschmann and Phoenix Contact join the group of shapers
• November 2017: Pilz, Hilscher and Wago join the shapers
• April 2018: Rockwell Automation announces that it will join the shapers^[13]
• November 2018: The OPC Foundation declares its entry into field-level applications with OPC UA over TSN.^[14]
• November 2018: ABB, Schneider and Rockwell join the board of the OPC Foundation^[15]
• November 2018: Presentation of the steering committee for OPC UA over TSN at the field level: ABB, BECKHOFF, Bosch-Rexroth, B&R, Cisco, Hilscher, Hirschmann, Huawei, Intel, Kalycito, KUKA, Mitsubishi Electric, Molex, Omron, Phoenix Contact, Pilz, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, TTTech, Wago and Yokogawa.^[16]
• November 2018: The first functional devices with OPC UA TSN are presented at the SPS IPC Drives exhibition

Organization

In November 2018, the OPC Foundation announced that it would expand OPC UA's range of applications down to the field level by combining it with TSN. The responsibilities and vision of the shapers group will continue in the framework of the OPC Foundation. B&R's parent company ABB, as well as Rockwell and Schneider Electric have joined the board of the OPC Foundation. The OPC Foundation assumes the role of a user organization and will thus promote the continued development and distribution of OPC UA over TSN.{{AFC submission|t||ts=20190205092751|u=Monkhiker|ns=118|demo=}}

Weblinks

• [https://opcfoundation.org/ Official Website of the OPC Foundation]
• Time-sensitive networking task group of the IEEE

References

Please review OPC UA TSN article

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