Network Interactions and Performance of a Multifunction IEC 61850 Process Bus

Title

Network Interactions and Performance of a Multifunction IEC 61850 Process Bus

Subject

Ethernet networks

IEC 61850

IEC standards

industrial networks

performance evaluation

process bus

protective relaying

smart grid

substation automation

Protocols

Substations

Performance evaluation

IP networks

Network topology

spanning tree

Creator

David M. E. Ingram

Pascal Schaub

Richard R. Taylor

Duncan A. Campbell

Source

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. Vol. 60, No. 12, pp. 5933-5942

Publisher

IEEE

Date

2013-12

Relation

ISSN 1557-9948

Format

application/pdf

Language

en

Type

Peer-reviewed Article

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Identifier

10.1109/TIE.2012.2233701

Abstract

New substation technology, such as nonconventional instrument transformers, and a need to reduce design and construction costs are driving the adoption of Ethernet-based digital process bus networks for high-voltage substations. Protection and control applications can share a process bus, making more efficient use of the network infrastructure. This paper classifies and defines performance requirements for the protocols used in a process bus on the basis of application. These include Generic Object Oriented Substation Event, Simple Network Management Protocol, and Sampled Values (SVs). A method, based on the Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) and virtual local area networks, is presented that separates management and monitoring traffic from the rest of the process bus. A quantitative investigation of the interaction between various protocols used in a process bus is described. These tests also validate the effectiveness of the MSTP-based traffic segregation method. While this paper focuses on a substation automation network, the results are applicable to other real-time industrial networks that implement multiple protocols. High-volume SV data and time-critical circuit breaker tripping commands do not interact on a full-duplex switched Ethernet network, even under very high network load conditions. This enables an efficient digital network to replace a large number of conventional analog connections between control rooms and high-voltage switchyards.