OpcLabs.Pcap communication package

Introduction

You need to use the OpcLabs.Pcap communication package (the OpcLabs.Pcap assembly and its dependencies) for following purposes:

• OPC UA PubSub Ethernet mapping (the "opc.eth" scheme).
• OPC UA PubSub reading or writing Wireshark capture files.

Note: You do not need OpcLabs.Pcap if you are just using OPC UA PubSub UDP (UADP or JSON message mapping) over physical network, even when the network itself is, as it is commonly the case, based on the Ethernet technology.

Hint: For quick tests and experiments with OPC UA PubSub, and especially if you do not want to lose time coding when you need to figure out the proper settings, you can use the OpcCmd Utility - see Using OpcCmd Utility as OPC UA PubSub Subscriber. The utility allows to specify all parameters of the dataset subscriptions that are accessible from code, but simply by entering them on the command line. It also has a built-in support for displaying the incoming datasets and their fields.

Licensing

OpcLabs.Pcap depends on SharpPcap and PacketDotNet libraries that are licensed under LGPL.

Strong-naming

The OpcLabs.Pcap assembly is not strong-named.

Library/Driver Dependencies

For live packet capture (OPC UA PubSub Ethernet mapping), OpcLabs.Pcap has (through SharpPcap) additional dependencies:

• On Windows, it requires the WinPcap (old) or Npcap (new) driver. Npcap download page.
• On Linux, it requires the libpcap library. On some Linux systems, the library is preinstalled. Libpcap project page.

Refer to the SharpPcap project page for more information.

Troubleshooting

OPC UA PubSub Common Traps And Pitfalls