IEC/TR 61850-90-4 (2013-08)

IEC/TR 61850-90-4:2013(E) is intended for an audience familiar with network communication and/or IEC 61850-based systems and particularly for substation protection and control equipment vendors, network equipment vendors and system integrators. This Technical Report focuses on engineering a local area network limited to the requirements of IEC 61850-based substation automation. It outlines the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to network topology, redundancy, clock synchronization, etc. so that the network designer can make educated decisions. In addition, this report outlines possible improvements to both substation automation and networking equipment. This Technical Report addresses the most critical aspects of IEC 61850, such as protection related to tripping over the network. This Technical Report addresses in particular the multicast data transfer of large volumes of sampled values from merging units. It also considers the high precision clock synchronization and 'seamless' guaranteed transport of data across the network under failure conditions that is central to the process bus concept.