A controller area network is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other. It is a message-based protocol, designed originally for multiplex electrical wiring within automobiles to save on copper, but it can also be used in many other contexts. For each device, the data in a frame is transmitted serially but in such a way that if more than one device transmits at the same time, the highest priority device can continue while the others back off. Frames are received by all devices, including by the transmitting device.
A remote terminal unit (RTU) is a microprocessor-controlled electronic device that interfaces objects in the physical world to a distributed control system or SCADA system by transmitting telemetry data to a master system, and by using messages from the master supervisory system to control connected objects. Other terms that may be used for RTU are remote telemetry unit and remote telecontrol unit.
IEC 61850 is an international standard defining communication protocols for intelligent electronic devices at electrical substations. It is a part of the International Electrotechnical Commission's (IEC) Technical Committee 57 reference architecture for electric power systems. The abstract data models defined in IEC 61850 can be mapped to a number of protocols. Current mappings in the standard are to Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS), GOOSE [see section 3, Terms and definitions, term 3.65 on page 14], SV or SMV, and soon to web services. In the previous version of the standard, GOOSE stood for "Generic Object Oriented Substation Event", but this old definition is still very common in IEC 61850 documentation. These protocols can run over TCP/IP networks or substation LANs using high speed switched Ethernet to obtain the necessary response times below four milliseconds for protective relaying.
Distributed Network Protocol 3 (DNP3) is a set of communications protocols used between components in process automation systems. Its main use is in utilities such as electric and water companies. Usage in other industries is not common. It was developed for communications between various types of data acquisition and control equipment. It plays a crucial role in SCADA systems, where it is used by SCADA Master Stations, Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). It is primarily used for communications between a master station and RTUs or IEDs. ICCP, the Inter-Control Center Communications Protocol, is used for inter-master station communications. Competing standards include the older Modbus protocol and the newer IEC 61850 protocol.
The international standard IEC 61499, addressing the topic of function blocks for industrial process measurement and control systems, was initially published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2005. The specification of IEC 61499 defines a generic model for distributed control systems and is based on the IEC 61131 standard. The concepts of IEC 61499 are also explained by Lewis and Zoitl as well as Vyatkin.
In the electric power industry, an intelligent electronic device (IED) is an integrated microprocessor-based controller of power system equipment, such as circuit breakers, transformers and capacitor banks.
CANopen is a communication protocol and device profile specification for embedded systems used in automation. In terms of the OSI model, CANopen implements the layers above and including the network layer. The CANopen standard consists of an addressing scheme, several small communication protocols and an application layer defined by a device profile. The communication protocols have support for network management, device monitoring and communication between nodes, including a simple transport layer for message segmentation/desegmentation. The lower level protocol implementing the data link and physical layers is usually Controller Area Network (CAN), although devices using some other means of communication can also implement the CANopen device profile.
The Common Information Model (CIM) is an electric power transmission and distribution standard developed by the electric power industry. It aims to allow application software to exchange information about an electrical network. It has been officially adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
EtherCAT is an Ethernet-based fieldbus system developed by Beckhoff Automation. The protocol is standardized in IEC 61158 and is suitable for both hard and soft real-time computing requirements in automation technology.
A protocol converter is a device used to convert standard or proprietary protocol of one device to the protocol suitable for the other device or tools to achieve the desired interoperability. Protocols are software installed on the routers, which convert the data formats, data rate and protocols of one network into the protocols of the network in which data is navigating. There are varieties of protocols used in different fields like power generation, transmission and distribution, oil and gas, automation, utilities, and remote monitoring applications. The major protocol translation messages involve conversion of data messages, events, commands, and time synchronization.
IEC 60870 part 6 in electrical engineering and power system automation, is one of the IEC 60870 set of standards which define systems used for telecontrol in electrical engineering and power system automation applications. The IEC Technical Committee 57 have developed part 6 to provide a communication profile for sending basic telecontrol messages between two systems which is compatible with ISO standards and ITU-T recommendations.
International standard IEC 61400-25 provides uniform information exchange for monitoring and control of wind power plants. This addresses the issue of proprietary communication systems utilizing a wide variety of protocols, labels, semantics, etc., thus enabling one to exchange information with different wind power plants independently of a vendor. It is a subset of IEC 61400; a set of standards for designing wind turbines.
Generic Substation Events (GSE) is a control model defined as per IEC 61850 which provides a fast and reliable mechanism of transferring event data over entire electrical substation networks. When implemented, this model ensures the same event message is received by multiple physical devices using multicast or broadcast services. The GSE control model is further subdivided into GOOSE and GSSE.
Sercos III is the third generation of the Sercos interface, a standardized open digital interface for the communication between industrial controls, motion devices, input/output devices (I/O), and Ethernet nodes, such as PCs. Sercos III applies the hard real-time features of the Sercos interface to Ethernet. It is based upon and conforms to the Ethernet standard. Work began on Sercos III in 2003, with vendors releasing first products supporting it in 2005.
SCS is an acronym for "Sistema Cablaggio Semplificato". It uses a fieldbus network protocol and has applications in the field of home automation and building automation. It is used mainly in bTicino and Legrand installations.
IEC 62351 is a standard developed by WG15 of IEC TC57. This is developed for handling the security of TC 57 series of protocols including IEC 60870-5 series, IEC 60870-6 series, IEC 61850 series, IEC 61970 series & IEC 61968 series. The different security objectives include authentication of data transfer through digital signatures, ensuring only authenticated access, prevention of eavesdropping, prevention of playback and spoofing, and intrusion detection.
High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR) is a network protocol for Ethernet that provides seamless failover against failure of any single network component. PRP and HSR are independent of the application-protocol and can be used by most Industrial Ethernet protocols in the IEC 61784 suite. HSR does not cover the failure of end nodes, but redundant nodes can be connected via HSR.
Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) is a network protocol standard for Ethernet that provides seamless failover against failure of any network component. This redundancy is invisible to the application.
IEC 60870 part 5 is one of the IEC 60870 set of standards which define systems used for telecontrol in electrical engineering and power system automation applications. Part 5 provides a communication profile for sending basic telecontrol messages between two systems, which uses permanent directly connected data circuits between the systems. The IEC Technical Committee 57 have developed a protocol standard for telecontrol, teleprotection, and associated telecommunications for electric power systems. The result of this work is IEC 60870-5. Five documents specify the base IEC 60870-5:
Industrial automation systems consisting of several distributed controllers need a precise synchronization for commands, events and process data. For instance, motors for newspaper printing are synchronized within some 5 microseconds to ensure that the color pixels in the different cylinders come within 0.1 mm at a paper speed of some 20 m/s. Similar requirements exist in high-power semiconductors and in drive-by-wire vehicles. This synchronisation is provided by the communication network, in most cases Industrial Ethernet. Many ad-hoc synchronization schemes exist, so IEEE published a standard Precision Time Protocol IEEE 1588 or "PTP", which allows sub-microsecond synchronization of clocks. PTP is formulated generally, so concrete applications need a stricter profile. In particular, PTP does not specify how the clocks should operate when the network is duplicated for better resilience to failures.
