Redundant OPC UA Aggregating Servers for Session Failover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aggregating OPC UA Servers can become a single point of failure, causing system-wide impact due to their limited capacity to handle concurrent sessions, which is insufficient for connecting multiple OPC UA Clients to instrument device servers.
Innovation Solution
A system of aggregating servers is implemented, where two or more servers replicate and coordinate sessions to prevent improper access and load balancing, ensuring seamless fail-over switching and high availability by sharing structured data and session information among redundant servers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a single aggregating OPC UA Server is used to provide consolidated access to distributed address spaces, then access to structured data from multiple systems is simplified, but system reliability deteriorates due to single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the single aggregating server into multiple independent aggregating servers (first aggregating server and second aggregating server). Each server can independently establish sessions with systems to be aggregated and provide access to structured data, eliminating the single point of failure while maintaining simplified access through distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements replication where the first aggregating server and second aggregating server both replicate structured data from systems to be aggregated. This copying mechanism ensures that if one server fails, the other can continue providing access to the same structured data, thereby improving system reliability without compromising ease of operation.
2Device complexity
If a single aggregating server handles all concurrent sessions, then session management is centralized, but the server capacity is insufficient for multiple OPC UA Clients
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the session management function across multiple aggregating servers. Each aggregating server can establish and manage its own sessions with systems to be aggregated, allowing the system to handle more concurrent sessions than a single server could manage while maintaining centralized coordination through the distributed architecture.
3Reliability
If multiple aggregating servers are deployed to improve reliability, then system availability increases, but coordination complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the capabilities of multiple aggregating servers into a coordinated system where each server replicates structured data and coordinates sessions with systems to be aggregated. This combining approach allows the system to achieve high availability through redundancy while managing coordination complexity through standardized replication and session coordination mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
A system of aggregating servers includes a first aggregating server that establishes a session for linking with a first system; a second aggregating server that establishes a session linking with a second system; wherein the first and second aggregating servers replicate mutually structured data provided by the first and/or second system, to provide access to the structured data of the respective systems for the first and second aggregating servers; and coordinate the respective sessions of the system of aggregating servers with the first and/or second system to prevent improper access to the at least first system to be aggregated and/or the at least second system to be aggregated.