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IEC 62541 Series

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) — IEC 62541

SPEC // INSPECT: IEC 62541 SeriesREVIEWED: 2026-09-16
CATEGORYIndustrial Interoperability
JURISDICTIONINTERNATIONAL
MANDATORY LEVELTECHNICAL_STANDARD
LIFECYCLE STATUSCURRENT
EXECUTIVE BRIEF SPECIFICATION PDFDISTRIBUTION LOCKED
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[AI // ARCHITECTURAL SUMMARY]

OPC Unified Architecture (IEC 62541) is the global standard for open, secure, and vendor-neutral industrial data exchange across Levels 1 to 4 of the Purdue model. Breaking free from legacy Microsoft COM/DCOM limitations, OPC UA provides an extensible object-oriented address space, multi-protocol transport (binary TCP, WebSockets, PubSub over UDP/TSN), and built-in certificate-based authentication, signing, and encryption.

Scope & Applicability

Interoperable communications spanning embedded sensors, PLCs, DCS controllers, SCADA HMIs, MES platforms, and cloud analytics ingestors.

Non-Coverage Boundaries

Does not mandate specific physical cabling layers (runs over standard Ethernet/Wi-Fi/5G) or supersede safety-instrumented logic solvers (except via OPC UA Safety).

Key Clauses & Control Requirements

opc-security-profiles

Security Profiles & PKI Governance

Mandatory cryptographic suites (Aes128_Sha256_RsaOaep, Basic256Sha256) enforcing mutual client/server X.509 certificate trust, message signing, and encryption.

opc-address-space

Object-Oriented Information Modeling

Rich semantic address space organizing variables, methods, properties, and relationships into typed Companion Specifications (e.g., PackML, EUROMAP).

opc-pubsub

OPC UA PubSub & TSN

Publish-Subscribe communication architecture for deterministic, low-latency field-level multicast over Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).

[AUDIT // VERIFIABLE EVIDENCE CHECKLIST]

Required Regulatory & Audit Evidence Artifacts

  • [✓]OPC Foundation Official Compliance Certification Laboratory Test Certificate
  • [✓]OPC UA Server Security Configuration review disabling 'None' security policy
  • [✓]Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate Trust List and Revocation management audit
[LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAY // CTO & VP OF ENGINEERING DIRECTIVE]
“Legacy OPC DA was notoriously insecure and fragile due to Windows DCOM permissions. Standardizing on OPC UA with strict X.509 certificate enforcement bridges the OT-IT gap securely without compromising edge reliability.”

Cross-Surface Ecosystem Relationships

Related Systems
Related Incidents
Guides & Dictionary Terms
PRIMARY SOURCES & AUTHORITY

Frequently Asked Questions

Can OPC UA run without security enabled?

Yes, the specification includes a 'None' security profile for initial lab testing, but production deployments must strictly disable 'None' and enforce encryption (e.g., Basic256Sha256 or Aes128_Sha256_RsaOaep).