A high-reliability and determinacy architecture for smart substation process-level network based on cobweb topology

A highly reliable and deterministic process-level communication network is required to guarantee the protection switch control and data acquisition of substation automation systems (SASs), as it involves the important primary equipment in smart substations. The cobweb architecture is an artificial communication network topology based on cobwebs as they occur in nature. This study designs novel single- and dual-network architectures for process-level network for D2-1 typical smart substation based on the architecture of natural cobweb, which has structural properties that have been studied by numerical simulation and reliability theory. To demonstrate the feasibility of the process-level network based on cobweb architecture, fault tree analysis (FTA) is used to assess the reliability of the novel cobweb architecture and other traditional architectures. OPNET Modeler is used to simulate the message communication in the cobweb architecture, where the end-to-end time delay needs to conform to IEC 61850. The results of the theoretical analysis and simulation indicate that a process-level network based on cobweb architecture exhibits excellent reliability and determinacy.