Northbound Interfaces

Server-side interfaces for exposing WinCC OA data to higher-level systems and cloud platforms.

Northbound interfaces describe the communication layer between the SCADA system and higher levels of the information hierarchy — including MES, ERP, cloud platforms, and analytics systems. WinCC OA provides a set of server-side drivers and managers that expose process data through established protocols and interfaces.

Key capabilities

For IoT and cloud connectivity, the MQTT Publisher exposes datapoint values to any MQTT broker, enabling lightweight integration with cloud platforms and IoT gateways. Node-RED offers a low-code flow programming environment for building custom data integrations without writing driver-level code.

The core northbound protocol suite covers OPC: the OPC UA Server is the recommended choice for modern integrations and supports structured data models, subscriptions, and security. The OPC DA Server and OPC HDA Server provide compatibility with legacy clients. The OPC Alarms and Events Server exposes alarm and event data to OPC AE clients. For field-side publishing, the Modbus/TCP Server and SNMP agent expose process values to Modbus master devices and network management systems.

The SECS Gateway (available from version 3.20) enables integration with semiconductor manufacturing equipment via the SECS/GEM protocol. Enterprise database access is available through the OLE DB Provider, which exposes process data as a standard database source for reporting and BI tools. The Insights Hub Connector provides a direct integration path for the Siemens Insights Hub IoT platform. The configurable Northbound Interface (available from version 3.21) enables structured data export to external systems using a flexible mapping model.