A wide-area, wide-spectrum big data system

Power system data undergo significant signal filtering and downsampling at measuring devices before being communicated to wide-area visualization and analysis applications. For these applications, such processing acts in part to reduce network bandwidth requirements while maintaining essential characteristics of the original signal. However, modern communications systems are advancing in their capacity, and the price of data storage continues to drop. The constraints under which existing systems were built are being mitigated. Meanwhile, the need for higher-resolution data across larger areas continues to increase. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a system that delivers wide-spectral bandwidth data with precise time stamps over a wide area. Processing steps, such as converting to phasor representation, are moved to receivers. The system architecture allows a broader utilization of power system data. Several applications are described. Construction of a test system, operating between several cities, is described, and performance results are shown.