VSOMEIP - OPC UA Gateway Solution for the Automotive Industry

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution is relying on interoperability and consequently on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) concept. The industry is constantly researching and developing solutions for vertical and horizontal interoperation of systems, some concepts being already well-grounded. One of the main issues is the interfacing. The industry accepted the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) protocol as of high importance for interoperability in the IIoT context. The automotive industry is considered to have a separate path, because of a somehow more rigid approach towards communication and data integration. But, car-to-infrastructure and even car-to-car communication are requiring data exchange and implicitly a newer approach from the automotive industry. Recently, VSOMEIP (Scalable service Oriented MiddlewarE over IP from Genivi) interfacing is more and more present in automotive, its main focus being to assure interoperation between the Electronic Control Units (ECUs). The current paper proposes a VSOMEIP – OPC UA gateway conceptual solution that assures car interfacing in the IIoT context. The proof of concept is implemented regarding AUTOSAR (Automotive Open System Architecture) requirements, using a tailored operating system on an embedded device. In the first case study, the gateway is tested having all OPC UA and VSOMEIP clients and servers implemented and functioning on the device. The second case study presents the connection to an external OPC UA server. The obtained results are proving the effectiveness of the concept.