A dynamic topology discovery method for smart substation networks

With interoperation and interconnectivity of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in smart substations increasing, switch networks in smart substations are gradually becoming difficult to manage and maintain. This paper presents a dynamic topology discovery method tailored for smart substation networks based on MAC address matching, which goes beyond topology discovery algorithms for conventional switch networks in IT areas. This approach can automatically discover network topologies of smart substations, using matching information from MAC access tables of switches, captured network messages, and substation configuration files (SCD). According to the proposed topology discovery approach, Linux-based software is designed and developed to display network topologies in real time and identify network failure tailored for smart substations. The proposed method and developed software are validated and verified by experiments in the test-bed.