”技术,观察罗伯特•查斯克PE and senior systems architect at Beckhoff Automation LLC headquartered in Savage, Minn. “The huge missing component is having standardized data protocols.”
Use of industry standard protocols allows a network to support devices and applications from a variety of vendors. Standard protocols also secure the network and remote application in a time-tested and proven manner.
Trask and his colleagues at Beckhoff advocate adopting the OPC-UA standard because it contains what they consider to be the necessary components: built-in security, a reliable protocol, and independence from a particular vendor or operating system. “Also, there are several low-level, chip-level implementations that only require 15 kBytes of memory on the remote end,” adds Trask.
OPC-UA gives industry the tools to put remote nodes under a facility’s security umbrella and to avoid the common pitfall of leaving them vulnerable to hackers. One of these tools is a stack of standard code containing built-in security. “As a result, the developer does not have to become a security expert,” notes Trask.
The standard uses two security mechanisms, certificates and public keys. Smart phones secure e-mail by synchronizing the certificates at each end, and HTTP Secure (HTTPS) relies on a public key. “Public keys need to be renewed periodically, which is automatically done by the OPC-UA security mechanism,” says Trask.
Other benefits of an open standard like OPC-UA are what Trask calls future proofing and communication neutrality. “For the hyper-connected systems of the future, you really need openness,” he says.
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