OPC UA

OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture, IEC 62541) is the platform-independent, service-oriented industrial interoperability standard published by the OPC Foundation. It defines a transport-agnostic information model and security framework that lets shop-floor devices, controllers, MES, and IoT platforms exchange typed data — telemetry, alarms, historical values, methods — without bespoke drivers per asset. In a PLM context, OPC UA is how the digital thread reaches operating equipment: it is the wire that connects the as-designed and as-built models to the as-operating data stream.

What it covers

• Information modeling with object-oriented type hierarchies, references, and namespaces (companion specs for robotics, machine tools, injection moulding, etc.).
• Transport bindings — UA-TCP, HTTPS, and PubSub over MQTT/AMQP for cloud-bound telemetry.
• Security built in: authentication, authorization, signing, and encryption per session.
• Discovery and aggregation through Local Discovery Servers and Global Discovery Servers.
• Companion specifications for vertical interoperability (e.g. VDMA OPC UA for Machinery).

Relationships (see sidebar)

• Dependency of the Industrial Connectivity, IoT Platform, and Digital Twin capabilities — they need a typed protocol to ingest live operations data.
• Supports the Manufacturing Execution and Service and Maintenance processes.
• Implemented by edge-and-IIoT systems including PTC Kepware, PTC ThingWorx, and Siemens Insights Hub.