Data acquisition using ibaPDA with secure S7 communication

Data acquisition remains unrestricted, even with increasing plant security: With version 8.2, iba AG improves the connectivity of the scalable data acquisition software ibaPDA to S7 controllers. Thus, ibaPDA can read and process encrypted measurement and process values from S7 controllers using TLS (Transport Layer Security-Protocol). TLS encryption of communication processes is an answer to the continuously increasing security requirements in industrial networks. Since TIA Portal V17, S7-1200 and S7-1500 controllers support this form of information exchange, which protects data transmission against unauthorized access. Thanks to the new version of ibaPDA, plant and maintenance personnel can ensure and further expand the data acquisition and analysis of their processes without having to compromise on communication security. With the latest release of ibaPDA, it is also possible to read out PLC data originating from TIA Portal V18 projects.

Increased performance and improved user comfort

The new module type S7-Xplorer Decoder, within the S7-Xplorer interface, offers further simplification for users. It measures BYTE, WORD and DWORD variables and then splits them into 8, 16 or 32 digital signals. Thus, ibaPDA can measure a large number of digital signals with high performance. The possibility to configure new optional rules for signal names in version 8.2 of the data acquisition software also helps to define consistent signal names as they can be checked for uniqueness, maximum and minimum length, and a customer-specific rule. The newly implemented ibaQPanel scaling also provides additional user comfort: Integrated in ibaPDA, it automatically scales created ibaQPanel visualizations when the resolution of the display changes.