Using Web Services to exchange power plant process data

Since the introduction of SOAP protocol in 2000 by W3C, this Internet protocol continues to revolutionize the world of information and communication technology. In the domain of business information system, SOAP has allowed the development of Web services concept, which changes the way software and information system architecture may be designed and built. Service oriented architecture (SOA) is an example of this. In the area of industrial information system, the penetration of SOAP and Web services is less rapid because of the proprietary technology bastion, and the users reluctance in term of performance and lacking of feedback. In this paper, we show that our SOAP based industrial messaging specification (SIMS) offers services, which are used successfully in exchanging power plant process data with soft real time performance. The upcoming OPC-UA is another illustration showing that SOAP is on the way to become a base standard in industrial messaging protocol.