OPC UA Training

Lesson 1 • OPC UA Specification Structure

Breaks down the multi-part OPC UA specification set and explains how each part governs a specific aspect of the standard. Helps practitioners locate authoritative guidance quickly.

Lesson 2 • OPC UA vs. Legacy Industrial Protocols

Compares OPC UA with Modbus, PROFIBUS, and OPC Classic across key dimensions. Enables informed protocol selection decisions in integration projects.

Lesson 3 • History and Evolution of OPC

Traces OPC Classic origins through the creation of OPC UA, highlighting key limitations that drove the redesign. Provides context for why OPC UA became the industrial interoperability standard.

Lesson 1 • Client-Server Communication Model

Explains the request-response interaction pattern between OPC UA clients and servers, including session establishment and service sets. Forms the architectural baseline for all subsequent protocol study.

Lesson 2 • Profiles and Conformance

Defines OPC UA profiles as capability subsets and explains conformance testing requirements. Students understand how profiles constrain implementation scope and ensure interoperability.

Lesson 3 • Transport Protocols and Encodings

Covers OPC UA Binary, XML, and JSON encodings alongside TCP, HTTPS, and WebSocket transports. Students select appropriate encoding-transport combinations for given deployment constraints.

Lesson 4 • Publish-Subscribe Architecture

Introduces the OPC UA Pub-Sub extension for broker-based and brokerless messaging, contrasting it with client-server. Prepares students for IIoT and cloud integration scenarios.

Lesson 1 • Built-In Node Types and Base Types

Examines Object, Variable, Method, View, and DataType nodes along with their standard base types. Students identify the correct node type for each element of a real asset model.

Lesson 2 • Address Space Concepts

Introduces the address space as a graph of nodes accessible to clients, covering node classes and attributes. Establishes the conceptual foundation for all modeling and browsing activities.

Lesson 3 • NodeSet XML and Model Tooling

Covers the NodeSet2 XML format for exporting and importing information models and introduces modeling tools. Students export a complete model and import it into a server for validation.

Lesson 4 • Designing Custom Information Models

Guides students through the process of extending base types to model domain-specific equipment. Applies address space concepts to produce reusable, interoperable custom models.

Lesson 1 • Query and Event Services

Introduces the Query service for structured data retrieval and the Event service for alarm and condition monitoring. Students filter and receive process alarms using event subscriptions.

Lesson 2 • View and Browse Services

Explains Browse, BrowseNext, and TranslateBrowsePathsToNodeIds for navigating the address space. Students build a client that discovers server structure without prior NodeId knowledge.

Lesson 3 • Method Service Set

Covers the Call service for invoking server-side methods with typed input and output arguments. Students invoke device methods and handle asynchronous long-running operations.

Lesson 4 • Attribute Service Set

Covers Read, Write, and HistoryRead/Write services for accessing node attributes and historical data. Students write client code to read multiple attributes in a single optimized request.

Lesson 1 • Authentication and Authorization

Distinguishes user authentication methods (anonymous, username, certificate) from role-based access control. Students configure user identity tokens and restrict node access by role.

Lesson 2 • Certificates and PKI Management

Covers X.509 certificate roles, trust lists, and PKI infrastructure required for OPC UA secure channels. Students create, deploy, and manage certificates for a multi-node OPC UA environment.

Lesson 3 • Auditing and Security Logging

Explains OPC UA audit events and how servers expose security-relevant activity through the address space. Students enable and consume audit logs to support compliance and incident response.

Lesson 4 • Security Modes and Policies

Explains None, Sign, and SignAndEncrypt security modes and the associated security policies. Students configure appropriate mode-policy combinations for different deployment risk levels.

Lesson 1 • Server Configuration and Deployment

Addresses endpoint configuration, discovery registration, and packaging for production deployment. Students produce a deployable server artifact with documented configuration parameters.

Lesson 2 • Populating the Address Space

Demonstrates programmatic and NodeSet-based methods for adding nodes to a server's address space at startup. Students populate a device model with variables, objects, and methods.

Lesson 3 • Handling Read and Write Requests

Implements server-side callbacks for attribute read and write operations, including validation logic. Students connect server variables to live process data from a simulated PLC.

Lesson 4 • Server Development Environment Setup

Guides installation and configuration of an OPC UA SDK, build tools, and a reference server template. Ensures a reproducible development environment before any coding begins.

Lesson 1 • Resilience and Error Handling

Addresses reconnection strategies, bad status code handling, and graceful degradation patterns. Students stress-test the client against simulated network failures and server restarts.

Lesson 2 • Browsing and Node Discovery

Implements client-side browsing to discover server structure and resolve node paths to NodeIds. Students build a generic browser component reusable across multiple server types.

Lesson 3 • Subscription Management in Clients

Builds client-side subscription creation, monitored item management, and publish loop handling. Students implement a subscription manager that survives server restarts.

Lesson 4 • Client Connection and Session Management

Covers endpoint discovery, secure channel establishment, and session creation from the client side. Students implement a connection manager that handles certificate exchange and session renewal.

Lesson 1 • OPC UA Pub-Sub with MQTT and Cloud

Implements Pub-Sub data pipelines from OPC UA servers to cloud platforms via MQTT brokers. Students publish structured JSON payloads to a cloud time-series database.

Lesson 2 • Aggregation Servers and Tunneling

Explains how aggregation servers consolidate multiple OPC UA servers into a unified address space. Students configure an aggregation server to federate data from heterogeneous sources.

Lesson 3 • OPC UA and TSN Integration

Introduces Time-Sensitive Networking as a deterministic transport layer for OPC UA in motion control. Students evaluate TSN configuration requirements for latency-critical OPC UA deployments.

Lesson 4 • Performance Optimization and Scalability

Covers profiling, bottleneck identification, and tuning strategies for high-throughput OPC UA systems. Students benchmark a server under load and apply targeted optimizations.