Introduction To OPC

Introduction to OPC
Updated Apr 12, 2019
Overview
OPC is a standard interface to communicate between numerous data sources, including devices on a factory floor, laboratory equipment, tes
developing device-specific protocols, eliminate inconsistencies between devices, provide support for hardware feature changes, and avoid ac
set of standard interfaces that allow any client to access any OPC-compatible device. Most suppliers of industrial data acquisition and contr
Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs), are designed to work with the OPC Foundation standard.
Contents
COM/DCOM
OPC Implementation
OPC Ideal for High Channel Count Applications
Using OPC in LabVIEW
Using LabVIEW as an OPC Client
Using LabVIEW as an OPC Server
Related Links
COM/DCOM
The underlying layer of the OPC Data Access (DA) specification is based on Microsoft's COM/DCOM technology, which enables inter-process
operating system. In modern operating systems, processes are encapsulated to provide increased stability and security. COM provides a com
between processes. DCOM (Distributed COM) is the natural extension of COM to support communication among objects on networked com
DCOM can achieve security transparency, making distributed applications secure without any security-specific coding or design in either the
administrators configure the security settings for each component. Just as Windows operating systems allow administrators to set Access C
components. These ACLs indicate which users or groups of users have access to a component of a certain class. For additional specificatio
Microsoft TechNet website.
OPC Implementation
OPC allows client and server applications to communicate with each other. OPC is designed to be an abstraction layer between industrial net
behavior that the interfaces are expected to provide to their clients; and the clients receive the data from the interfaces using standard functi
data acquisition program contains an OPC client protocol, and an industrial device driver has an associated OPC interface, the program can c
for working with data control systems and application databases, as well as online data access, alarm and event handling, and historical dat
The data access server has three divisions:
Server − Contains all of the group objects

Group − Maintains information about itself and contains and organizes the OPC items
Item − Contains a unique identifier held within the group. The identifier acts as a reference for the individual data source, as well as valu
source. The quality status gives information about the device. The timestamp is the time that the data was retrieved.
An OPC application accesses all items through the OPC group rather than through the item itself. The group also contains a specific update r
available to the OPC client. A deadband specific for each group tells the server to reject values if they have changed by less than a specified d
The OPC server also provides alarm and event handling to clients. Within a server, an alarm is an abnormal condition of special significance t
or an item within the server. For example, if a data source value that represents the real-world temperature of a mixer drops below a certain t
the application will properly handle the low temperature. Events are detectable occurrences that are important to the server and client, such a
OPC also incorporates historical data access standards, which are a way to access the data stored by historical engines, including raw data s
feature of OPC allows interoperability of proprietary database systems.
OPC Ideal for High Channel Count Applications

The OPC Foundation’s stated design, goals, and motivation for industry standardization of control systems have enabled the implementation
Client software developers and users of these applications have greater flexibility in implementing a solution that is tailored to their needs be
points is determined by the client software. Grouping is beneficial in dealing with large sets of data sources because it provides greater orga
OPC application, a tag gives a unique identifier to an I/O point. Based on the OPC specification, the client or server software is responsible fo
that the user name tags. This flexibility is a significant factor in the ability of client software to provide solutions that are tailored for high-cha
Client software also specifies the rate at which the server supplies new data to the client. Because the server is responsible for data publicat
polling, which frees up more time for analysis and data logging. Moreover, the client software instead becomes a reactive object that waits fo
handles large sets of data much more efficiently.
The client also specifies deadbands on the server, which allows the client to determine which data is important and then disregard data that
more than a certain percentage from the previous value recorded. By establishing moderate deadband values, the client receives only inform
client from being flooded with superfluous information. In this way, the client can monitor a much greater number of channels.
Because OPC is now an industry standard, client software can connect to almost every vendor device available. Client software now is comp
large numbers and varieties of devices in mind. These are a few of the many OPC characteristics that give development software a huge adv
application software.
Using OPC in LabVIEW

LabVIEW allows developers to integrate with OPC systems. You can connect both OPC clients and servers to LabVIEW applications to share
is the Shared Variable Engine (SVE). The SVE is installed as a service on the computer when LabVIEW is installed. Using a proprietary techno
shared variable updates. Once you deploy Shared Variables to the SVE, the SVE works as a separate process running on the computer. For ex
automatically be available after the computer restarts. Moreover, the SVE will continue to be accessible for updates at any time and continue
published shared variables, refer to the NI Developer Zone article Buffered Network-Published Shared Variables: Components and Architectu
Figure 1. The Shared Variable Engine Can Be Either an OPC Client or a Server
For OPC, the SVE acts as the middleman between NI-PSP data items and other applications. You can configure I/O servers to be OPC clients
Control (DSC) Module. You can configure the SVE as an OPC server to publish NI-PSP data items to the network so other OPC clients can inte
Using LabVIEW as an OPC Client

The DSC Module provides OPC Client I/O servers for communicating with any server implementing the OPC Foundation OPC server interface
with an OPC Server. An OPC Client I/O server will list all available OPC servers that are installed and running on a local or network computer.
communication between LabVIEW and a PLC.
Figure 2. LabVIEW and the SVE Can Communicate with PLCs through OPC
PLCs publish data to the network. An OPC Server program uses the PLC’s proprietary driver to create OPC tags for each physical I/O on the P
Servers. NI OPC Servers contains a list of drivers for many of the industry’s PLCs. For a list of supported PLCs, refer to the NI Developer Zone
Client I/O servers provided with the DSC Module can connect to each OPC tag using the OPC DA standard. You can configure the multiple OP
percentages, and reconnect poll rates. The SVE provides a PSP URL for each OPC tag that other Shared Variables can bind to by enabling alia
Variables receive values, LabVIEW can easily read and write to the Shared Variables using a VI.
Using LabVIEW as an OPC Server

The SVE can act as an OPC server. However, the SVE as an OPC server should not be confused with NI OPC Servers, because the SVE does n
published Shared Variable and create OPC tags that an OPC DA client can connect to. This allows LabVIEW VIs to easily communicate with o
Figure 3. The SVE as an OPC Server
A common application for using the SVE as an OPC Server involves employing National Instruments Data Acquisition (DAQ) devices and an N
Channel can then be referenced by an NI-PSP URL. Therefore, the SVE can bind a network-published Shared Variable to the values being read
tags for the Shared Variable. In this way, an OPC client can read and write to the DAQ device. For a step-by-step process on publishing a DAQ
the LabVIEW Network-Published Shared Variable and OPC with NI-DAQmx.
Related Links
NI Developer Zone: How LabVIEW Uses I/O Servers
NI Developer Zone: Connect LabVIEW to Any PLC Using LabVIEW

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Updated Apr 12, 2019

The data access server has three divisions:

Server − Contains all of the group objects

OPC Ideal for High Channel Count Applications

Using OPC in LabVIEW

Using LabVIEW as an OPC Client

Using LabVIEW as an OPC Server

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