by Gary Mintchell | Dec 16, 2016 | News, Operations Management, Organizations, Standards
Interoperability, standardization, and collaboration were the key words for OPC Foundation in 2016. Tom Burke, OPC Foundation President, recently recapped a busy 2016 for the Foundation. Adoption of OPC UA has been gaining momentum in the market. Collaboration with other groups is growing. And the technology is finally beginning to show significant use beyond industrial automation.
Burke says, “It has been a very exciting year. We have seen record growth in adoption of the OPC UA technology across multiple domains and vertical markets. The OPC Foundation policy of being truly open has expanded the reach of the OPC technology. The specifications are available to everyone, the technology is open sourced, and now we have opened up our certification labs to non-members.”
The OPC Foundation byline since the beginning has been recognized as the “The Interoperability Standard for Industrial Automation.” With the significant international membership growth and adoption of the OPC UA technology across multiple vertical markets the byline of the OPC Foundation has been ratified as “The Industrial Interoperability Standard.” This byline recognizes the case that OPC is no longer just for automation.
OPC UA specifications and technology are actively being deployed across global boundaries supplying the key infrastructure for everything related to the Internet of Everything (IIoT, Industrie 4.0, China 2025, IIC, M2M…); inclusive of:
- numerous testbeds with the OPC UA technology being standardized in the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)
- being recognized as the communication and information modeling standard for Industrie 4.0
- OPC UA being finalized as a Chinese National Standard
In May 2016, BSI (German Federal Office for Information Security) conducted a thorough security analysis of OPC UA and found it exceeded the security requirements for Industrie 4.0.
Collaboration with numerous organizations beyond industrial automation is the strategy and path forward to allow information integration from the embedded world to the cloud.
New members and new products are emerging as end users are looking for information solutions for IIoT, and the OPC UA technology is well-positioned to address the needs of the Internet of Everything.
Numerous organizations continue to partner with the OPC Foundation and/or develop companion specifications for their respective information models to seamlessly plug into OPC UA.
Organizations announcing releases of their companion specifications in 2016 for the OPC UA technology included:
• AutomationML
• PLCopen
• AIM
• VDMA: Injection Molding (status: release candidate)
• VDMA: Vision Cameras (status: in foundation)
• VDMA: Robotics, starting with the help of KUKA (status: in preparation)
VDMA is very active standardizing on OPC UA information models and expects to rollout a multitude of additional information models in 2017, leveraging OPC UA information integration communication as it’s strategy for seamless information integration and interoperability.
Board of Directors
Board members are elected as individuals for a two-year term. Elected to new 2-year terms were: Russ Agrusa, (ICONICS), Veronika Schmid-Lutz (SAP), Stefan Hoppe (Beckhoff) (also VP of OPC Foundation), and Matthias Damm (Ascolab). Also on the OPC Foundation Board of Directors are Thomas Burke (OPC Foundation), Thomas Hahn (Siemens) (also VP of OPC Foundation), Matt Vasey (Microsoft), and Ziad Kaakani (Honeywell) (also Treasurer of OPC Foundation), and Shinji Oda (Yokogawa).
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 29, 2016 | Internet of Things, News, Operations Management, Organizations, Standards
IIoT Business Model
In another advancement for the Industrial Internet of Things, The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), the global, member-supported organization that promotes the accelerated growth of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), announced the publication of the Business Strategy and Innovation Framework (BSIF). The BSIF helps enterprises to identify and analyze issues that must be addressed to capitalize on the opportunities emerging within the IIoT.
“Everybody knows that the Industrial Internet of Things will completely transform the way that business works. What’s not clear is exactly how to deploy these new IIoT concepts to best effect,” said Jim Morrish, Chair of the Business Strategy Task Group, and Founder and Chief Research Officer, Machina Research. “What the IIC’s Business Strategy and Innovation Framework provides is a toolkit for identifying, prioritizing and initiating the deployment of those crucial IIoT initiatives. It’s a significant step forward for the IIoT industry in terms of working to capitalize on the huge opportunities presented by this new technology wave.”
The BSIF serves as a reference document for chief executives in enterprises planning to engage in IIoT concepts. A single-source compendium of the issues and challenges enterprises should consider before they deploy IIoT initiatives, the BSIF details frameworks and concepts to help enterprises increase value for users, customers and partners while at the same time helping to reduce market and technical uncertainties.
The BSIF outlines a comprehensive set of best practices for companies engaging in IIoT, but companies are free to adopt a lighter touch or use an existing internal project model, especially within smaller companies. Alternatively, a range of project support processes may already be in place and the approach documented in the BSIF may be used to enhance existing infrastructures to address new IIoT opportunities (particularly for larger companies).
“The IIC’s Business Strategy and Innovation Framework is an important industry milestone,” said Jim Nolan, EVP, IoT Solutions, InterDigital. “It offers timely, strategic guidance to the many organizations that are beginning to implement IIoT solutions.”
The BSIF is the most in-depth Industrial IoT-focused business strategy framework comprising expert vision, experience and business strategy best practices from IIC members, including Bosch Software Innovations, InterDigital, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Machina Research. The BSIF is available free of charge. For more information about the BSIF, click here.
The Business Strategy and Innovation Framework provides a high-level identification and analysis of issues that any enterprise will need to address to capitalize on the opportunities emerging from this current revolution that is the IIoT. This comprehensive document is a product of the Business Strategy Task Group, a strategy-focused task group within the Industrial Internet Consortium’s Business Strategy and Solution Lifecycle Working Group.
The Business Strategy and Innovation Framework describes the requirements to succeed in IIoT:
- An IIoT strategy and goals
- A structured framework to target and select the right IIoT opportunities
- A system in place to identify, assess and initiate IIoT opportunities
IIoT requires enterprises to rethink their current business models. This is necessary regardless of whether they actually adopt IIoT solutions internally: Industry is moving toward IIoT adoption, and enterprises that keep pace with this trend will undoubtedly have a strong competitive advantage.
Contributors to the Business Strategy and Innovation Framework dedicated their valuable time and expertise in authoring, editing and other ways. In particular, we would like to thank the following contributing members and their organizations:
- Veronika Brandt – Bosch Software Innovations
- Ken Figueredo – InterDigital, Inc.
- Steve Haldeman – Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Jim Morrish – Machina Research, Chair of the Industrial Internet Consortium Business Strategy Task Group
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 18, 2016 | Automation, Networking, Standards
News regarding Time Sensitive Networking continues to flow. The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), an independent provider of broad-based testing and standards conformance services for the networking industry, announced the launch of three industry-specific time sensitive networking (TSN) consortiums – Automotive Networking, Industrial Networking, and ProAV Networking – designed to provide deterministic performance within standard Ethernet for real-time, mission critical applications. By providing high quality test plans, tools, and test beds for TSN, UNH-IOL allows businesses to improve products and accelerate market readiness.
“Standards-based precise time, guaranteed bandwidth, and guaranteed worst-case latency in a converged Ethernet network is a game-changer to many industries,” said Bob Noseworthy, Chief Engineer, UNH-IOL. “Through UNH-IOL’s industry-specific TSN consortiums, companies can be at the forefront and drive the technology forward by validating their solutions with a full suite of testing services, which will allow applications such as self-driving cars and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to take off.”
Originally established as a “best effort” network, Ethernet needs additional specific features to deploy mission critical applications. TSN standards enable deterministic real-time communication over Ethernet, allowing solutions to be built to provide extremely precise, predictable timing across the network. By adding features to Ethernet such as time synchronization, ingress policing, seamless redundancy, frame preemption, scheduled traffic, and stream reservation, TSN ensures mission-critical, time sensitive data is not held up on the network, promoting an interoperable ecosystem spanning across many industries. As TSN standards mature, UNH-IOL consortium members are able to support rapid development of conformance and interoperability solutions for emerging standards, validating their silicon and early products by gaining access to test solutions as well as multi-vendor test beds.
A major driving force behind the development of TSN standards is the emerging Automotive Ethernet market. The future connected, autonomous vehicle requires the time sensitivity and predictability in networking that TSN provides to support Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) requirements, infotainment expectations from consumers, and other elements of vehicle electronics. Supporting automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and manufacturers supplying OEMs enabled with deterministic Ethernet solutions, the TSN Automotive Networking Consortium provides a setting for collaboration and participation in shaping the emerging standards through neutral, third party conformance and interoperability testing.
TSN’s importance is also emerging in industrial automation due to the rise in interest around the IIoT, specifically the mission-critical, time sensitive data that must be transferred and shared within strict bounds of latency and reliability. TSN enhancements for Industrial Ethernet provide standards-based determinism and reliability needed for these applications. The TSN Industrial Networking Consortium brings together stakeholders to realize the benefits of TSN – bandwidth, security, interoperability, and latency and synchronization for IIoT, robotics, assembly plants, and machines, as well as shape the standards and protocols for TSN in the industrial market.
Recent enhancements and certifications in the audio/video market have created a wider choice of compatible products and open technology that brings high-quality AV networking within the reach of any size Professional AV system. TSN enhancements provide the important timing audio and video systems need. The Pro AV Networking TSN Consortium is a testing ground for the promises of seamless redundancy, low-latency, and synchronization in the professional audio/video market.
UNH-IOL provides the test facility for stakeholders across multiple industries – automotive, industrial, and Pro AV – to drive the emerging, maturing TSN standards. To learn more about joining the new consortiums, please visit: Automotive Networking TSN Consortium, Industrial Networking TSN Consortium, Pro AV Networking TSN Consortium.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 4, 2016 | News, Organizations, Standards
MIMOSA has announced its MIMOSA Open Meeting and Annual MIMOSA Members Meeting to be held in Houston, Texas at the BP Upstream Learning Center on Nov 29 and 30, 2016. The Open Meeting will take place on Nov 29, while the Members Meeting will take place on Nov 30. The address for both meetings is BP America Inc, 2 Helios Way, Houston, TX 77079.
The focus of the MIMOSA Open Meeting is to highlight recent developments and progress toward adoption of interoperability standards between MIMOSA and cooperating industry organizations enabling the Open Industrial Digital Ecosystems based on the Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem (OIIE). The OIIE provides a pragmatic option to proprietary ecosystems. It is developed in a fully cooperative manner with multiple industry standards organizations, so that it is fully open and supplier neutral, while allowing the use of Commercial Off The Shelf solutions from suppliers of all types and sizes. The agenda for the MIMOSA Open Meeting is still being finalized, but the starting time will be 9:00 AM CT on Nov 29 and it will finish at 4:00 PM. Owner/Operators, EPCs, Integrators, Equipment OEMs, Software Suppliers and Industrial Media participants are welcomed.
The MIMOSA Members Meeting on Nov 30 will focus on areas of greatest interest to our members, including Owner/Operators, EPCs, Equipment OEMs, Software Suppliers and invited guests. The MIMOSA Annual Business Meeting will be included in the day’s events. The MIMOSA Members Meeting will start at 9:00 AM on Nov 30 and conclude at 5:00 PM.
To reserve your spot at this important meeting, please email [email protected]. Further information will be made available on the MIMOSA website at www.mimosa.org.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 26, 2016 | Interoperability, Standards
This snippet from the conversation shows some of the urgency:
The first is that the kinds of technologies that have access controls for copyrighted works have gone from these narrow slices (consoles and DVD players) to everything (the car in your driveway). If it has an operating system or a networking stack, it has a copyrighted work in it. Software is copyrightable, and everything has software. Therefore, manufacturers can invoke the DMCA to defend anything they’ve stuck a thin scrim of DRM around, and that defense includes the ability to prevent people from making parts. All they need to do is add a little integrity check, like the ones that have been in printers for forever, that asks, “Is this part an original manufacturer’s part, or is it a third-party part?” Original manufacturer’s parts get used; third-party parts get refused. Because that check restricts access to a copyrighted work, bypassing it is potentially a felony. Car manufacturers use it to lock you into buying original parts.
This is a live issue in a lot of domains. It’s in insulin pumps, it’s in voting machines, it’s in tractors. John Deere locks up the farm data that you generate when you drive your tractor around. If you want to use that data to find out about your soil density and automate your seed broadcasting, you have to buy that data back from John Deere in a bundle with seed from big agribusiness consortia like Monsanto, who license the data from Deere. This metastatic growth is another big change. It’s become really urgent to act now because, in addition to this consumer rights dimension, your ability to add things to your device, take it for independent service, add features, and reconfigure it are all subject to approval from manufacturers.
We are all familiar with lock in. Heck, I’ve been in some product development meetings where some of these things came up. “How can we keep customers with us and away from the competition?” they ask.
Meanwhile the customer says, “I’m pretty happy with your product now. But what if you start acting like Mylan and its EpiPen? I find myself locked in, and now I am susceptible to frequent price increases. Or what if your quality begins to dip? Not to mention, what is your incentive to innovate any longer?
And so, the inevitable dance continues.
I’m not opposed to big companies with comprehensive product offerings. Sometimes there is a lot of innovation. It takes a lot of money to invest in developing some of these products. Customers appreciate this. They welcome partners. They just want to see competition and alternatives. But sometimes the customer voice gets lost.
Sometimes I look at the situation as an independent analyst/writer not beholden to anyone and decide someone has to speak up for the customer.
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 8, 2016 | Internet of Things, Interoperability, Operations Management, Software, Standards
This essay is third in a series on moving data on the Industrial Internet of Things. We’ll take a look at OPC UA.
First we looked at Opto 22’s new product that provides for RESTful APIs as a way to open up information to move from platform to platform. This is relatively simple and understood by almost all recent college graduates. This method does not model data, but it can move vast amounts of data.
MQTT is a transport technology providing a low bandwidth middleware. However, developers have recently added a data model, MQTT Sparkplug. MQTT is agnostic as to the message. You can move data from all manner of sources—including OPC—using this transport. People began thinking there should be a way to describe the message within this ecosystem.
The Grandfather of them all
I reached out to Tom Burke, president of the OPC Foundation, for more information about how OPC UA fits into this picture.
So what is OPC UA? “OPC UA is about multivendor secure reliable interoperability for data and information integration from the embedded world to the cloud.”
The key to OPC is interoperability. It allows clients from one supplier to import data from another. Many years ago, for example, I was in the Wonderware labs. They had PLCs from almost all known suppliers. In order for its HMI/SCADA software application to work, developers had to write drivers from every one of those PLCs. With OPC, they could communicate with every OPC-enabled PLC. And so could every other supplier. It opened competition, the very thing that customers want.
That was more than 20 years ago. Today there are over 4,200 vendors who have OPC products in the marketplace. Or, as Burke puts it, “The days are over where the end users are willing to pay for multivendor interoperability by developing custom Software Solutions to integrate products from multiple vendors together.”
The OPC UA working group has already developed a simple https interface for UA that will meet and exceed the needs of many applications.
The biggest value is the data modeling/semantics OPC UA provides, followed by the security mechanisms.
I received this from the OPC Foundation:
So for any IoT application, one should ask:
- How do you model/describe your data?
- How do you store your data?
- How do you authenticate?
- How do you encrypt?
- Where do you store your secrets?
- What do you use for transport?
- Who/what can you connect to?
OPC UA can answer all these questions.
Choose wisely
So, you can see that there are several options. It really depends upon your data needs. OPC UA guarantees interoperability. REST and MQTT are standards in themselves, but as a user you’d have to ask your supplier if they using them in an open manner. It’s possible that they are using an open standard in a proprietary way that promotes additional system integration business.
It all sounds confusing on the surface. Like any project you’re beginning, be clear about expectations and specifications up front. And, of course, maybe a blend is just right for you.
