OPC Interview: OPC Test Lab Certifications

OPC Foundation “kicks it up a notch”
OPC Test Lab Certifications

By Bill Lydon, automation.com

OPC has become a vital part of plant and process automation since the OPC Task Force went public at the 1995 ISA Show in New Orleans. OPC standards have become the “data communications plumbing” for the controls and automation industry enabling open connectivity via open standards. Everything from plant floor sensors to a company’s business systems are being connected making OPC an essential business asset. The OPC Foundation is launching certification labs to insure a high level of quality and reliability of OPC products.

Automation.com’s Contributing Editor Bill Lydon interviewed Tom Burke, OPC Foundation President & Executive Director and Paul Hunkar, Director of Compliance for the OPC Foundation and Consultant engineer for ABB to learn more about the certification.

Bill asks Tom: Why the new OPC Certification Program?

The OPC Foundation is dedicated to the idea that users have the best out of box experience possible with OPC based products. In addition our goal is that OPC products exceed user expectations over the life time deployment of the technology.

We started this new OPC Foundation 3rd Party Enhanced Certification program as part of the OPC UA development program, and after intensive analysis that included surveys, feedback from the other consortiums, and the end-user community we concluded that having an independent mandatory certification program is the best way to address user needs for high quality and reliability. One of the key mechanisms for certification was having independent labs and an enhanced certification logo program so OPC certified products are easily identifiable.

Lab certification is a logical progression as OPC has moved from simply an open standard for HMI drives to becoming a vital link in industrial and process automation systems.

We want every user to have a quality and exciting experience with OPC products. The new OPC Foundation 3rd Party Enhanced Certification Program also illustrates vendor commitments to quality, interoperability, and reliability.

Bill asks Paul: Why did OPC create an Independent Certification Test Lab?

Self Testing and the interoperability workshops was the basis for OPC compliance over the years, and was adequate for 95% of the products. The remaining 5% create problems for users and lab certification will solve this issue. Also, since OPC is now being used in a broader range of applications there is a need for system and long term testing to insure interoperability and reliability.
The Independent Certification Test Lab extends the existing self certification and interoperability programs to address the advanced testing requirements that are tightly aligned to the needs of the end-users whose expectation is reliable plug-n-play solutions.

Bill asks Tom: Why did OPC decide to enhance the existing compliance programs now after being in business over 12 years?

OPC technology is consistently being adopted and designed into products and custom solutions for a much broader range of applications because people have learned that OPC’s simple interface and high-value functionality enable them to rapidly deploy applications. OPC provides a very simple mechanism to facilitate interfaces making it very popular. OPC is being used with a much broader range of applications now so there are significantly more combinations of systems required to interact through OPC. Stricter compliance to the standard is required to insure interoperability and avoid significant problems in terms of reliability, performance, and problematic behavior with other components in the system. Consequently the OPC Foundation, working with vendors and end users has developed an enhanced certification program, and corresponding processes resulting in the Independent Certification Test Lab. This is a logical path for industrial standards as illustrated by industrial Ethernet organizations.

Bill asks Paul: How do you make sure vendors really certify products according to the new OPC standards?

We provide the detailed procedures for certifying a product and publish the names and products of vendors that pass certification. Applying OPC Lab certified products assures users they are using the best OPC products available.

Bill asks Paul: Who were the drivers developing the OPC enhanced certification program?

OPC is fortunate to have vendors and end user members committed to open standards that supported the development of the certification program. A number of vendors and end user collaborated to create the OPC Foundation 3rd Party Enhance Certification program. These companies included ABB, Beckhoff, CyberLogic, ExxonMobil, Foundation Fieldbus, Honeywell, ITM (Profibus Lab), Kepware, Matrikon, OSI, Rockwell, Shell, Siemens, SMAR, Software Toolbox, and Weyerhaeuser.

Bill asks Tom: How broadly used are OPC products?

Market analysis indicates that OPC technology is deployed by over 2000 vendor companies that build shrink wrapped OPC products, and there are over 17,000 different shrink wrapped OPC products in the marketplace. In addition there are a number of custom applications and other uses for which OPC is being deployed. The analysts extrapolate this information indicating there are over 20 million OPC shrink wrapped products in the field plus countless custom applications.

Bill asks Paul: Is the ICTL for OPC UA products only?

From the end-user feedback we have received it's very important that the OPC test lab certifies existing legacy products already available based on the OPC DCOM technology in addition to OPC UA products.

Bill asks Paul: How is this new certification different from the old certification?

The vision of OPC is about dedication to plug-and-play secure reliable interoperability, and the OPC focus is to guarantee vendors build quality products that make the OPC vision a reality to guarantee user satisfaction. Early OPC certification was about self testing and interoperability workshops, but the complexity of the products and solutions in the marketplace have dictated and required the need for an enhanced certification program The new enhanced certification programs retains the self-testing and interoperability programs, enhances them to include additional test tools and then adds the Independent Certification Test Lab which provides the next level of product certification.

Bill asks Paul: What are the benefits and parts of the new OPC certification program?

The Compliance Certification Program consists of Compliance Test Tools (CTT), Interoperability Sessions (IOP), and Independent Certification Test Labs.

The Compliance Test Tools (CTT) enables developers to self test and verify OPC server interfaces. Currently CTTs are available for the OPC DA, A&E, HDA, and XML-DA specifications. The CTTs generate test reports, and provide debugging support.

The IOPs consist of workshops held in Japan, Europe, and the US each year to test products with other OPC suppliers. All attendees run tests on their own products against other attendee products to verify interoperability; they often bring source code and fix any minor issues that may arise for future releases. Vendors have enthusiastically been involved with the IOP’s.

Independent Certification Test Labs provide a reproducible environment for performing interoperability, functional, behavior, performance, usability, and environmental tests. A key point to remember is that the Test Labs are an enhancement to the existing Compliance Test Tools (CTT) and Interoperability Sessions (IOP). With this new program in place we will focus on raising the bar for certification and validation of adherence to specifications and will test multivendor plug-and-play interoperability.

The Compliance Certification Program is supported by automation and enterprise suppliers, manufacturers, standards bodies and universities.

Bill asks Paul: What is the intrinsic benefit to OPC Foundation members?

This really brings significant benefits to the organization’s 480 plus member companies and users of OPC products. OPC Foundation suppliers will realize significant cost savings with respect to current support since the program is designed to make sure potential product quality and interoperability problems are resolved long before the products are installed in the field.

Bill asks Paul: How do you know this new ICTL concept will work?

The Independent Certification Test Lab was developed and modeled after the very successful Foundation Fieldbus and PROFIBUS Certification Test Labs. Collaboration with these consortiums and not “reinventing the wheel” is part of what we strived for when creating the Independent Certification Test Lab. In particular we learned a great deal from the PROFIBUS certification methods which have proven to be the best in the industry in mandating certification and providing the infrastructure to insure quality products are delivered to the industry.

Tom adds:

The OPC Foundation, in conjunction with manufacturers, is promoting and raising awareness of the importance of OPC compliance certification when making product purchasing decisions. OPC quickly discovered that the majority of problems and interoperability issues were with suppliers that had not tested their products sufficiently with other supplier products. This provided the driving force behind development of the OPC Foundation 3rd Party Enhanced Certification program.

The real importance of this is really that the end users have spoken. End users are demanding plug-and-play secure reliable interoperability. Users understand that in the world of consumer electronics it's a given that things just work out of the box in a multivendor scenario and they expect the same from automation standards as they deploy solutions based on products from multiple vendors.

Bill asks Paul: What type of support have you received from OPC vendors in setting up the ICTL?
The members of the Compliance Committee all donated a great deal of time in reviewing and generating the specification describing testing. In addition as part of the ICTL, we wanted to include hardware from a number of vendors for interoperability testing. To accomplish this we solicited vendors for donations of products that could be used as Reference Products. The following companies provided hardware and /or software to the ICTL: ABB, Beckhoff, Cyberlogic, GE, ICONICS, Kepware, Matrikon, OSI, Rockwell, Siemens, Softing, Software Toolbox, and Wonderware.

Tom adds:

The great OPC member support we have had in establishing the ICTL really illustrates that competing vendors are committed to quality multivendor interoperability of products that are certified. Essentially, the companies that are providing reference products to the lab have really raised the bar for other vendors, as these reference products shall be used as a measuring stick for products being tested in the lab.

Bill asks Paul: How can end users determine what products have been certified?

The OPC Foundation web site (www.opcfoundation.org) provides an integrated view of the OPC compliance certification test results. An elaborate filtering mechanism has been incorporated into the site so that a visitor can easily list a subset of published products. In order to assist the user, default filters are designed with certification in mind. Products that have passed compliance certification tests are presented by default.

Bill asks Paul: If a Vendor wants more information on the ICTL what should they do?

Complete information and registration for the program can be found on the OPC Foundation website. OPC Independent Certification Test Lab Process

For more information or questions contact regarding the OPC Foundation 3rd Party Enhanced Certification program contact:
Paul Hunkar
OPC Foundation Director of Certification
Paul.Hunkar@opcfoundation.org

Or

Thomas J. Burke
OPC Foundation President and Executor Director
Thomas.Burke@OPCfoundation.org

Editors Comments

I want to thank Tom and Paul for taking the time to address a very important topic that affects the vendor and end-user community in the automation industry. I have been actively engaged in many standards initiatives over the years as a user or participant and have always found the OPC Foundation an organization dedicated to improving multivendor interoperability of the controls and automation industry. The OPC Foundation has been innovative and open in collaboration with numerous other organizations working hard with member companies to exceed end-user satisfaction with quality delivered products.

I welcome your thoughts and feel free to contact me to express your opinions, comments, and interview suggestions.

Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor
wlydon@automation.com
Automation.com

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