Baseline efficiency in EPON based architecture to inter-network substations

The design of cost-effective, interoperable, and efficient communication architecture is indeed one of the pressing needs not only for the realization of substation automation (SA) as per specification of IEC61850 but also to inter-connect different substations with minimum cost to bring data from all substations on the single information highway thereby paving a smooth way to centralize all the available information. Ethernet technology has dramatically changed the communication trend because of its availability, efficiency, cost effectiveness, proven interoperability, and capability to drive on-demand bandwidth as per incremental growth and expansion of the network and on the other hand optical fiber communication system is one of the technically attractive communication medium due to its high capacity, efficiency, and security. Therefore, EPON (Ethernet Passive Optical Network) is the desired communication paradigm for the SA as it is shipped with the two most demanding communication trends, i.e., Ethernet and Fiber Optics in a single package. EPON underscores the importance of not only last-mile operability for inter-connecting different substations but can also play a vital role when ATM is replaced with GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) for the long-haul communication thereby saving the cost of protocol conversion. In this paper we propose EPON as the desired communication architecture for inter-connecting substations and present analysis related to the significant importance of EPON with respect to the deployment in the substation environment both internally and externally. Finally we show the result of simulations to validate the deployment and effectiveness of our purposed communication paradigm for substation.