What is the Unified Namespace is best described in this LinkedIn Article by Walker Reynolds.
I copied some of his information below, but intend to write my own version soon.
Understanding that UNS is an architecture that is wholly agnostic, it is not dependent on any one product or technology,Ā that it is built around creating a single source of truth for current state, organized like the business, on a technology that is edge drive, report by exception, lightweight and open architecture.Ā You will hear, above all,Ā thisā¦ UNS is the foundation of your digital infrastructure and acts like a fabric that is omniscient and omni-presentā¦ and you will be chomping at the bit to take what you have learned and go apply it.
What Is The Unified Namespace (UNS)?
- The structure of your business and all of the events, see Event Driven Architecture (EDA)
- A single source of truth for all data and information of the business
- The place where the current state of the business lives, see State machines
- The hub through which the smart things in your business communicate with one another
- The architectural foundation of your Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation initiative (Digital Strategy)
Why Do We Need a Unified Namespace?
- Scalability
- Normalization
- Time to Value
- Security
- Agility
Also note, Wim Dijkgraaf mentions:
How Does The Unified Namespace Work?
- The smart things in your business communicate with one another via a common IIoT protocol and leveraging a common standard (Minimum Technical Requirements)
- Data that originates from a smart thing that does not support the minimum technical requirements must be integrated via a gateway that converts the protocol and standard the āThingā does support to the protocol and standard the organization has adopted
- The smart things in your organization updates to the UNS as they happen to a pre-defined location(s) within the namespace that is configured when the smart thing is plugged into this infrastructure
- The data and information in the UNS is organized like your business
Example structure:
(Image property of 4.0 Solutions)
(Image property of 4.0 Solutions)
