Glossary

QUBIQ terms

Binding (property) — A link between a component property and a live source: a tag, another property, or a query. → Property bindings

Binding (protocol) — A link between a tag and its data source: connection, address, polling mode. → Protocol bindings

Connection — A configured, named, credentialed endpoint: an OPC-UA server, a broker, a database. → Connections

Deadband — A change threshold below which a new value is not propagated or stored. The single most effective control on network traffic and history volume.

Epoch (history) — A record that a given store was the historian between two times. Reads resolve across epochs so a historian change does not truncate trends. → History epochs

Gateway — The QUBIQ installation as a whole: the supervisor, its services and the message bus. → The gateway

Gateway script — A server-side Python entry point, marked @gateway, callable from screens and pipelines. → Gateway scripts

Historian — The service that stores tag values over time, backed by QuestDB. → Historian

Internal tag — A tag whose value QUBIQ owns, with no protocol binding — a setpoint, a counter, a computed KPI. → Tags

LiveView — The operator runtime: published views, live data, no design tooling. → LiveView

Named query — A saved, parameterised statement with its connection baked in. Preferred over inline SQL. → SQL databases

Namespace — The hierarchy of folders and tags modelling the plant. → Namespace

Node — One step in a pipeline. → Node reference

Pipeline — A directed graph of nodes that moves and transforms data. → Pipelines

Project — The unit of authored work: views, scripts, named queries, pipelines and assets. → Projects

Quality — Trustworthiness of a value: Good, Uncertain, Bad, NotFound. Propagates through bindings, expressions, alarms and charts.

Runtime user — An operator who logs into LiveView. Stored in a User Database, distinct from a platform user. → LiveView authentication

Store and forward — Buffering outgoing writes to durable storage when a destination is unreachable, and replaying them in order. → Store and forward

Supervisor — The master process that starts the message bus, migrates the database and spawns one process per service. → The gateway

Tag — A named value with engineering metadata: data type, unit, scaling, deadband, quality defaults. → Tags

UDT (user-defined type) — A reusable, parameterised tag template that materialises into ordinary tags. → User-defined types

User Database — An external identity source holding runtime users, bound to a project. → LiveView authentication

Variable — Cross-pipeline shared key/value state, persistent or volatile. → Variables

View — One operator screen. → Views and layout

Write level — A tag's required operator write-security level (0–3), enforced server-side. → Tag write security

---

Industrial automation terms

DCS — Distributed Control System. Process control across many controllers.

Deadband (instrumentation) — The range through which an input can vary without producing an output change.

Engineering units — The physical units a value represents (°C, bar, RPM), as opposed to raw counts from a device.

HMI — Human-Machine Interface. The operator-facing screens.

ILP — InfluxDB Line Protocol. The high-speed ingestion format QuestDB accepts.

ISA-95 — The standard for enterprise/control-system integration; the source of the hierarchical plant model the namespace follows.

ISA-18.2 / IEC 62682 — The alarm-management standard: lifecycle states, rationalisation, performance metrics. → Alarms

IEC 62443 — The industrial cyber-security standard series. QUBIQ's audit journal is designed against -3-3. → Audit journal

MES — Manufacturing Execution System. Sits between ERP and the control layer.

Modbus — A simple, ubiquitous, untyped register protocol. → Modbus

MQTT — A lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol. → MQTT

OPC-UA — OPC Unified Architecture: the modern, secure, typed industrial protocol. → OPC-UA

P&ID — Piping and Instrumentation Diagram. The schematic convention QUBIQ's process symbol library follows. → Drawing & symbols

PLC — Programmable Logic Controller. The deterministic real-time controller QUBIQ supervises but does not replace.

RBE — Report by exception: publish only when a value changes. → RBE node

RTN — Return to normal. An alarm condition clearing.

SCADA — Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.

Shelving — Temporarily silencing an alarm, with automatic release on expiry. → Operating alarms

SNMP — Simple Network Management Protocol, for infrastructure monitoring. → SNMP

Sparkplug B — An MQTT convention adding typed, self-describing metrics with birth and death certificates. → MQTT & Sparkplug B

Tag — In industrial usage, a named process value. QUBIQ's tags add explicit engineering metadata.

WAL — Write-Ahead Log. QuestDB applies writes through one; a failed apply suspends the table. → Historian configuration

---

Abbreviations

DLQ	Dead-letter queue — the store-and-forward quarantine
ILP	InfluxDB Line Protocol
OOS	Out of service (alarm suppression kind)
RBE	Report by exception
RTN	Return to normal
S&F	Store and forward
UDT	User-defined type
USM	User-based Security Model (SNMPv3)