Gigabit Ethernet based substation under IEC61850 standard

Communication architecture for substation automation is one of the challenging and subtle tasks to address in order to visualize the substation into digital world under the umbrella of IEC61850. Communication paradigm for substation automation demands critical importance because of two reasons; as communication arena is changing day by day so it is convenient to opt for something that is simple to deploy and incur a less cost in terms of time and asset when migration is to be considered since data-intensive applications drive the incremental demand for bandwidth as per growing need with the expansion of concerned network and last but not least the interoperability as it is one of the core constrained put by IEC61850 for substation automation. So it is viable to consider Ethernet as the most promising solution for the communication architecture of substation automation as Ethernet technology has changed the trend of communication network because of its availability, efficiency, and cost effectiveness on the other hand interoperability is assured based on the proven and highly deployed industrial Ethernet. This paper presents analysis and the crucial need for the deployment of Gigabit Ethernet in the substation and also presents how Ethernet technology can help in the substation automation as a long run solution in the changing arena of communication as Ethernet is one of the most pervasive communication technologies. In the end we have performed simulations in NS-2 to prove that our suggested communication paradigm is optimal in various regards by keeping into consideration the constraints imposed by IEC61850.