Supported Features

General aspects

• Simulation is supported on Windows and Linux.
• The user interface can display the entire data model as well as all data sets of all IED found in any given SCL file
• The user interface can display all GOOSE, SV or Report control blocks found in any given SCL file

SCL/SCD/ICD file manipulations

A copy of all SCL files inputted is saved in the project folder. As such, the full portability of projects is ensured.
A file entry can be changed, whether to re-upload the same file whose contents might have been modified, or to change the file entirely. In both these scenarios a change detection mechanism will help the user make an informed decision about whether or not the SCL file entry should be updated.

GOOSE publishing & subscribing

The simulator can transmit and receive GOOSE messages (command, control or status). Publishing and subscribing is configured by providing an SCL/SCD/ICD file and creating connection points for all attributes comprised within the selected GOOSE message's data set.

Sampled Values publishing & subscribing

9-2LE

The simulator can become a merging unit and/or a subscriber in an IEC 61850 architecture. The logical device referred to as Merging Unit (MU) performs a time coherent combination of the current and/or voltage data. The MU contains the Logical Nodes TVTR (voltage transformer) and TCTR (current transformer). It combines the currents and voltages from three phases along with the neutral currents and voltages into one data set, to transmit them as Sampled Values messages to all subscribing IED.
This version of Merging Unit follows the recommendations of the UCA International Users Group, published in the user convention IEC 61850-9-2LE. Mainly, the SV data set is composed of 4 CT/VT transmitted using 80 or 256 samples per cycle. The input data is computed and sent/received by a driver application that runs at a frequency determined by the configured sample rate and nominal frequency.
This I/O interface also supports data integrity manipulation of publisher values.

Simulator Throughput

About the size of 9-2LE messages (by SEL)

One 9-2LE Sampled Values stream represents 4.8 Mbps of data throughput. Our simulators support 1 Gbps throughput per Ethernet adapter and provide a minimum of 2 adapters (additional Ethernet cards are optionally available). In a typical configuration, the first adapter is reserved for communication with the host and the second adapter can be used by the simulation. Thus the most basic simulator hardware configuration supports up to 213 9-2LE Sampled Values streams. Considering that the driver runs the asynchronous process at a time step of 208 us and that each message takes approximately 5 us to process, a maximum of 41 streams can be managed per physical core. The driver adapts automatically to the user's needs and reserves additional cores when more than 41 streams are configured. To achieve 213 streams, 6 physical cores are required. By using additional Ethernet cards, expansion chassis and larger CPU, there is no theoretical limit to the number of streams our simulators can manage. Please consider the potential limits imposed by the number of ports of the Ethernet switch(es) or other devices in the network.

Note that these guidelines do not consider mixing GOOSE messages, MMS server communication or other communication protocols on the same Ethernet interface.

IEC 61869-9

Contrary to Sampled Values 9-2LE, the SV data set is composed of a custom number of current and voltage values, usually associated to a quality value. In this standard, the transmission rate is not limited to 80 or 256 samples per cycle. Publishing and subscribing is configured by providing an SCL/SCD/ICD file and creating connection points for all attributes comprised within the selected SV message's data set.

Reports

The simulator can become an MMS server that sends reports to connected clients according to the triggers established for data attributes of interest. Reporting is configured by providing an SCL/SCD/ICD file and creating connection points for all attributes comprised within the selected report's data set.
The trigger options and the optional fields are initially populated with information from the SCL file but are fully configurable to adapt to the simulation's needs.

MMS server

Any IED added as a result of parsing an SCL/SCD/ICD file can be used as an MMS server. Here is a summary of the supported features:

• Apart from the reporting feature, clients can also access server data by direct request. As such, they can directly read (though polling) or write (FC permitting) data attributes present in the server.
• Clients can send control commands (provided the IED contains controllable objects); the scope of the feature is detailed below.
• On Linux systems, the server will bind to the network interface specified in the IED's configuration parameters.
• On Linux systems, the IP aliasing functionality can be used to permit multiple IED that use different IP addresses to use the same network interface.
• The MMS server's asynchronous computation can be migrated to a dedicated core.
• Data sent by the model can be accumulated to compute their RMS value before placing them in the server; this computation is done outside the real time loop.

Control services

The implementation of this feature was done following chapters IEC61850-7-2 (section 20), IEC61850-7-3 (section 7.5) and IEC61850-8-1 (section 20).

IEC61850-7-2 defines 5 models of control, specified as elements of an enumeration:

The table below offers an overview of the controls possible, depending on the common data class (CDC) of the object: 

Connected clients can send control commands to the objects in the server, provided that:

• the objects' common data class is appropriate (as mentioned in the table above)
• the control model is different from status only (0)
• the control command is appropriate for the control model chosen (e.g. Select cannot be sent when the control model is direct operate)

Limitations

IEC 61850-8-1 GOOSE

• Supported basic attributes are: BOOLEAN, INT8, INT16, INT32, INT64, INT8U, INT16U, INT32U, FLOAT32, FLOAT64, Enum, Dbpos, Tcmd, Check, Quality, Timestamp and Struct.
• Timestamp data type is only processed at the GOOSE header level as UTC field; otherwise it is treated as a simple integer.

IEC 61850-9-2LE Sampled Values

• Sampled Values subscribers can only filter messages by multicast address; therefore is it not possible to have two SV messages being published on the same address since SV subscribers will subscribe to both, leading to erroneous information.
• The data integrity manipulation feature is not yet compatible with the IEC 61850 Data Integrity Manipulation component. Support will be added in subsequent versions.
  Nevertheless, the feature can be used by creating connections with other blocks.

IEC 61850-8-1 MMS

• Supported basic attributes are: BOOLEAN, INT8, INT16, INT32, INT64, INT8U, INT16U, INT32U, FLOAT32, FLOAT64, Enum, Dbpos, Tcmd, Check, Quality, Timestamp and Struct.
• Timestamp data type is treated as a simple integer.
• The following data attribute FC are not supported: BR, RP, GO, MS, US, LG.