Introduction

The Modicon BMENUA0100 OPC UA server module brings high performance OPC UA capabilities to Modicon M580 ePAC systems.

OPC UA is a modern, secure, open, reliable communications platform for industrial communications, designed to be flexible and scalable from resource constrained IoT sensors in the field through to enterprise grade servers hosted in the data center or the cloud. Beyond connecting and moving data around, OPC UA defines a comprehensive information model for publishing and managing meta-information and system context to simplify automation engineering and systems integration.

In realizing a communications standard for modern, connected industrial operations, OPC UA provides a common link between connected products in the field, automation and edge controllers, and enterprise applications and analytics. As such it is designed to be compatible with modern IT and security infrastructure such as firewalls, VPNs and proxies. OPC UA scales for both functional requirements and bandwidth.

Features

The BMENUA0100 module includes an OPC UA server and an embedded Ethernet switch. It is Included in the Control Expert Hardware Catalog in the Communication module group,

The BMENUA0100 brings the following features to the Modicon M580 platform:

General:

  • Direct and optimized access to Control Expert data dictionary for simple mapping between Control Expert and OPC UA variables.

  • Support for Hot Standby configurations via OPC UA Redundancy.

  • Compatibility with M580 Safety systems as a type 1 non-interfering module as defined by TÜV Rheinland.

  • Seamless Ethernet backplane communications.

  • DHCP/FDR client for downloading stored (non-cybersecurity) configuration settings.

  • NTP time server and client synchronization.

  • Multiple diagnostic methods, including LEDs, DDT, OPC_UA variables and data items, Syslog, Modbus, SNMP, and secure web pages.

  • Firmware Upgrade via the EcoStruxure™ Automation Device Maintenance Tool.

  • Firmware integrity checking.

  • Hardware secured storage.

Cybersecurity:

  • Secure communications via HTTPS, OPC UA (optional), and IPSEC (optional).

  • Module-level OPC UA security configurable via HTTPS.

  • The ability to control inbound and outbound communication flow by enabling and disabling communication services.

  • IPSEC based on a pre-shared key (PSK) for securing services such as SNMPv1, Modbus/TCP, Syslog, and NTPv4.

    NOTE: The BMENUA0100 supports main mode IPSEC, not aggressive mode. An IPSEC channel can be opened by either the BMENUA0100 server or a remote OPC UA client. On a PC client, IPSEC is supported and validated on Windows 7, 10 and Windows server 2016 systems.

Authentication management:

M580 communication module features include: