OPC UA-integrated authorization concept for the industrial internet of things (IIoT)

Abstract

In today’s Internet, cyber security has been an increasingly known and needed aspect during the last years. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and especially Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), it finally is a key requirement to make Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet actually happen. OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), a new and promising industrial technology, provides basic security but security scope, is limited to connection security; actual data access authorization is neither specified nor implemented. Thus, this paper recommends an authorization mechanism for the IoT based on OPC UA to protect data confidentiality and privacy. On the other hand, the proposed mechanism integrates with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) as a widely accepted technology for authentication. The paper describes the solution space and recommended solution, introduces a prototype and first evaluation, and analyzes LDAP for its suitability as an alternative solution.