UaGateway

The UaGateway® is a product for migrating the “classic” COM/DCOM based OPC Servers to the new OPC Unified Architecture. The UaGateway is a high performance Wrapper/Proxy programmed in C++ and internally uses our C++ OPC UA Server/Client SDK/Toolki, but adds some handy feature extensions that make it a connectivity platform and universal middleware which allows for various use cases.

Solutions that can be obtained using the UaGateway:

  • connecting UA Client to COM/ DCOM Server(s)
  • connecting COM/DCOM Client to UA Server(s)
  • tunneling COM/DCOM through secure UA connection (2x UaGateway required)
  • aggregation, data concentration on a single node; single point of access
  • security gate, adds strong security and user authorization to ‘classic’ OPC and weak UA servers
  • firewall-friendly ReverseConnect-Proxy when UA server(s) live behind firewall
  • Tagfile and Cache for individual AddressSpace mapping (Companion Model)
  • TagLinker synchronizing data between servers

The new UaGateway is fully configurable through OPC UA Methods. It will comply with the OPC DI Specification (Device Integration) and will offer standardized diagnosis and configuration capabilities.

The UaGateway is a Windows 32Bit application; it can be installed on standard Windows (XP, Vista, Win7, Win8, Win10, Win11) and can also run on 64Bit Windows (WOW64). The UaGateway can connect multiple underlying COM DA Servers and multiple underlying UA Servers at the same time. Connections to underlying servers can be added during runtime without restarting the UaGateway.

UaGateway Software Architecture

UaGateway Features - individual license keys

UaGateway has different features in terms of underlying connections (channel) and functionality of the core component (information model). The individual features can be enabled by individual license keys, depending on your requirements.

Data Access (Base)

  • Wrapper and Proxy for classic OPC DA 2.05a, DA 3.0 and OPC UA
  • Includes the modules OPC DA Client, OPC DA Server and OPC UA Client for Data Access and OPC UA Server for Data Access

Alarms and Events (AddOn)

  • Wrapper and Proxy for OPC A&E 1.1 and OPC UA
  • Includes the modules OPC A&E Client, OPC A&E Server and OPC UA Client for Alarms and Events and OPC UA Server for Alarms and Events

Historical Data Access (AddOn)

  • Wrapper and Proxy for OPC HDA and OPC UA.
  • Includes the modules OPC HDA Client, OPC HDA Server and OPC UA Client for Historical Data Access and OPC UA Server for Historical Data Access

Tag File & Cache (AddOn)

  • Customizable internal symbolic address space.
  • Includes the TagFile module, that allows to import custom OPC UA type system (information model) and to create instances thereof either being mapped onto underlying tags of appropriate type OR being mapped onto internal "cache" variables.

Tag Linker (AddOn)

  • Configurable list of source and target tags being "linked" together
  • Subscribe to source tags and write to target tag (on change)
  • move data between underlying OPC UA and/or classic DA servers

Typical Use Case

One of the use cases the UaGateway was designed for is the connection of legacy OPC Clients (e.g. HMI/SCADA systems) that need to connect to OPC UA Servers. The UaGateway will act as a “classic” OPC DataAccess 2/3 Server being installed locally on the PC where the HMI/SCADA Client resides. The UaGateway’s internal UA Client connects to one or more UA Servers using the high performance binary protocol. The connection can pass through firewalls, can run over the Internet and uses the OPC UA security mechanisms: authentication and encryption. The information model on the underlying UA Server(s) will be transparently mapped into the address space of UaGateway’s OPC DA Server.

When using UaGateway on both sides you can create a secure Tunneler running insecure classic OPC DA traffic over a secure OPC UA transport connection.