India among elite nations to join OPC

India on Tuesday became the sixth country in the world to join OPC Foundation to propagate the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) protocol for industrial automation with global standards.

OPC UA is a machine to machine communication protocol released in 2008 and currently operates in the US, Korea, Japan, Germany and China. OPC Foundation is the industry consortium that creates and maintains the protocols for open connectivity of industrial automation devices and systems.

Interacting with DH at the India chapter inauguration organised by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) and OPC Foundation, Siemens Chief Expert Software Thomas Hahn said OPC protocol is a platform independent service-oriented architecture that integrates all the functionality of the individual OPC Classic specifications into one extensible framework.

“Our endeavour is to make the ecosystem ready to comply with the OPC UA protocol so that Indian industry can also compete globally, taking advantage of growing manufacturing opportunity,” he said.

Hahn also said India will get certification lab so that the integration with these protocols will happen seamlessly. “India has companies which are implementing these protocols, the country needs more certified people and organisation to further expand the ecosystem. Setting up an OPC Foundation-accredited Certification Test Lab in Bengaluru will fuel the growth of its application,” he said.

Any OPC UA client, OPC UA server or OPC classic (DCOM/COM) product, either software based or hardware based, can be certified by an OPC Foundation-accredited Certification Test Lab.

OPC UA protocol’s multi-layered approach helps to achieve design specification goals of functional equivalence, platform independence, security and comprehensive information modeling among others.

“Manufacturing and services can’t be done in silos and lot more involvement of companies require participation of each of them to deliver better customer experience. OPC UA protocol will fuel further standardisation of Indian industry for global growth,” he said. 

OPC Foundation wants more industry association and organisations join so that India can move ahead in adopting standards for Industry 4.0 journey.