Using Ethernet as the base communication system IEC61850 provides a high degree of flexibility in tailoring the network topology to the dedicated application. IEC61850 specifies not special network topologies but describes the communication services and requirements for the different needs in the different levels of the substation process. This is defined as a set of abstract models and services in IEC 61850-7-2 and mapped onto concrete communication protocols in IEC 61850-8-x and IEC 61850-9-x.

IEC 61850-9-x maps the model and services for the transmission of sampled values that requires a higher bandwidth of the communication system. IEC 61850-8-x maps all the other models and services. This results in a set of concrete communication models and services defined in IEC 61850-8-x and IEC 61850-9-x.

These communication services may now be combined and used over different physical communication links to create the network topology that best suits the requirements of a specific substation. Some examples are given in the following figures. The Switch may be a single device but can also stand for a network consisting of several switching devices.

Keywords:
communication network topology, mappings, part 8, part 9, sampled values

provided by Christoph Brunner
ABB Switzerland Ltd
Convenor of TC57 / WG12