The Performance of OPC-UA Security Model at Field Device Level

This paper discusses the performance of OPC UA security model at field device level. Process networks have traditionally been isolated networks but today there is interest to integrate process networks to manufacture and office network. Remote management of field devices via Internet is also gaining interest. This requires implementation of TCP/IP in field devices. However, this causes process networks not being isolated anymore and attention must be paid to the security of process networks. OPC UA is a specification for data transfer in automation systems that can be used to integrate information, horizontally and vertically. Security has also been considered in OPC UA but security measures implemented by OPC UA are too heavy to be uses in field devices. Thus, implementing security profile for authentication without encryption in OPC UA or running OPC UA on IPSec without its own security profile is proposed.