Data bridges between OPC UA and MQTT
The two platform-independent netFIELD App containers ‘OPC UA Server’ and ‘OPC UA Adapter’ are software gateways that enable a transparent data exchange between applications that are using the two different messaging protocols MQTT and OPC UA as data interfaces.
On the primary side, both containers function as MQTT clients. The “OPC UA Server” app makes the IoT data acquired with other netFIELD apps available as an OPC UA server. This allows customers to retrieve the data with an OPC UA client. Conversely, the ‘OPC UA Adapter‘ acts as an OPC UA client on the secondary side, aggregating configurable data objects from one or more OPC UA servers, and publishing them to an MQTT broker as topics through the MQTT client.
Generally, Hilscher’s netFIELD Apps use MQTT as the preferred IoT messaging protocol for exchanging their data with other applications. With the provision of the two OPC UA converter containers, it is now possible to enhance netFIELD Apps with an OPC UA data interface. This offers greater flexibility and interoperability in industrial environments when there is a need for OPC UA data-driven decision-making processes in IIoT application scenarios such as predictive maintenance, improved manufacturing efficiency, general cost savings, and higher product quality in production processes.