Application Instance Certificate and Software Certificate

[Mel]

Hi,

OPC UA supports two different certificate types.
The Application Instance Certificate used to exchange the public key to encrypt the OpenSecureChannel-message
and the SoftwareCertificate which is exchanged during the Session.

What is the SoftwareCertificate used for?
There exist also the signed version of this certificate in the spezification.

Thank you very much,
Mel

[Support Team]

Hi,

The Application Instance Certificate is use to identify an individual software installation and to protect the communication.

The Software Certificate is just used to identify a product with its features (Profiles). Such a Software Certificate can be signed by the OPC Foundation to acknowledge support of the indicated profiles after the software was certified by an OPC Foundation certification laboratory. Software Certificates are not used yet.

Best Regards,
Unified Automation Support Team

[Mel]

Thanks again for the answer :-)