The protection relay supports a range of communication protocols including IEC
61850, IEC 61850-9-2 LE, IEC 60870-5-103 and Modbus
. Profibus DPV1
communication protocol is supported by using the protocol converter SPA-ZC 302.
Operational information and controls are available through these protocols. However,
some communication functionality, for example, horizontal communication between
the protection relays, is only enabled by the IEC 61850 communication protocol.
The IEC 61850 communication implementation supports all monitoring and control
functions. Additionally, parameter settings, disturbance recordings and fault records
can be accessed using the IEC 61850 protocol. Disturbance recordings are available
to any Ethernet-based application in the IEC 60255-24 standard COMTRADE file
format. The protection relay can send and receive binary signals from other devices
1MRS756814 D Section 2
REF615 overview
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Application Manual
(so-called horizontal communication) using the IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE profile,
where the highest performance class with a total transmission time of 3 ms is
supported. Furthermore, the protection relay supports sending and receiving of analog
values using GOOSE messaging. The protection relay meets the GOOSE
performance requirements for tripping applications in distribution substations, as
defined by the IEC 61850 standard.
The protection relay can support five simultaneous clients. If PCM600 reserves one
client connection, only four client connections are left, for example, for IEC 61850
and Modbus.
All communication connectors, except for the front port connector, are placed on
integrated optional communication modules. The protection relay can be connected to
Ethernet-based communication systems via the RJ-45 connector (100Base-TX) or the
fiber-optic LC connector (100Base-FX). An optional serial interface is available for
RS-232/RS-485 communication.
Self-healing Ethernet ring
For the correct operation of self-healing loop topology, it is essential that the external
switches in the network support the RSTP protocol and that it is enabled in the
switches. Otherwise, connecting the loop topology can cause problems to the
network. The protection relay itself does not support link-down detection or RSTP.
The ring recovery process is based on the aging of the MAC addresses, and the linkup/link-down events can cause temporary breaks in communication. For a better
performance of the self-healing loop, it is recommended that the external switch
furthest from the protection relay loop is assigned as the root switch (bridge priority
= 0) and the bridge priority increases towards the protection relay loop. The end links
of the protection relay loop can be attached to the same external switch or to two
adjacent external switches. A self-healing Ethernet ring requires a communication
module with at least two Ethernet interfaces for all protection relays.
