Communication network of Wide Area Protection System using OPNET simulator

The paper investigates an architecture and communication network of Wide Area Protection System (WAPS). The features of three WAPS architectures, including centralized, distributed and networked, are discussed respectively in detail, and the networked structure is considered to be the best due to its fast response time and open standard. Different communication networks of WAPS are modeled using OPNET simulator, and their performances for relay protection are compared. The results show the networked architecture could satisfy the relay protection requirements of WAPS, and it has less communication delay than the centralized architecture. In order to deal with burst data transmission, the 100 Mbps Ethernet is preferable to ensure communication performance.