Schneider promotes the use of time-sensitive networks as a unified solution for industrial IoT

[China Instrument Network Instrumentation Enterprise] Schneider Electric, ABB, Bosch Rexroth and other companies are jointly promoting the use of time-sensitive network (TSN) OPC UA as a unified solution for industrial controllers and cloud communications. The open standards-based solution will allow the industry to use devices from different vendors and maintain full interoperability, and plans to support OPC UA TSNs in next-generation products.

Traditionally, different industrial automation solutions are independent of each other because they use incompatible and non-interoperable differentiated standards for communication between devices. As a result, customers often find themselves locked in their own ecosystem. Manufacturers also have to develop multiple versions of the same product to support these ecosystems. This situation limits the integration of innovations and new solutions, and customers cannot optimize their automation solutions to their full value.

To solve this problem, Schneider Electric, ABB, Bosch Rexroth and others started an open technology collaboration under the framework of the Industrial Internet Alliance (IIC) and the OPC Foundation. These companies are committed to developing an open, unified, standards-based and interoperable Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution for deterministic and real-time point-to-point communications between industrial controllers and the cloud. The organization considered the OPC UA TSN as a unified standard for industrial automation and IIoT connectivity. The OPC UA TSN combines the enhanced OPC UA pub/sub (Pub/Sub) technology and the IEEE TSN Ethernet standard. It provides all the open and standardized building blocks needed to unify industrial automation communications and will facilitate information technology (IT ) Widespread integration of operating technology (OT), which is the foundation for the realization of industrial IoT and Industry 4.0.

These companies plan to support OPC UA TSNs in the next generation of products. This type of pilot product has been integrated on an IIC test bench. The goal of these companies is to use OPC UA TSNs on a standard IT infrastructure to enable communication between compatible controllers on different vendors' devices.

(Original title: Schneider Electric promotes OPC UA as a unified standard for industrial IoT)