Communications processor for electric power substations

Abstract

The communications processor includes an electronic network system which includes at total of 17 individual ports, four quad universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter devices, each of which serves four separate ports, and a microprocessor which processes and controls the flow of data under the control of stored control programs, command settings and command logic. Connected to a plurality of those ports referred to as IED ports are intelligent electronic devices IEDS, such as protective relays or meters, while connected to other ports, referred to as master ports, are remote terminal units or a local computer or terminal or a modem which can be connected to an external telephone line. The apparatus includes both buffer and long-term storage for development of a database, as well as an IRIG-B capability for synchronization of the time clocks of the connected devices.

1. A communications processor apparatus for integrating communication between a plurality of electronic devices having data communication capability present at a given location in a power system or connected remotely thereto, the apparatus comprising:
 an electronic network system having a plurality of port positions to which electronic devices may be connected, including at least one port position to which an apparatus for entry of control commands may be connected and at least one port position through which data obtained from said electronic devices may be transmitted to other electronic devices;  
 receiver-transmitter means for communication of data between a) an electronic device connected to a port position of the communications processor apparatus and b) the remainder of the communications processor apparatus;  
 means for configuring communication parameters associated with each port position for proper data communication with the electronic device connected thereto;  
 means for storing and retrieving data obtained from the electronic devices;  
 means for storage of control commands entered by a user of the apparatus;  
 means for processing data obtained from the electronic devices, wherein the means for processing data includes means for parsing received data in accordance with selected rules; and  
 control means for controlling the flow of data and control commands within the apparatus and between said ports  port positions.  
 
     
     
       2. An apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the ports to which protective relays or meters are connected are identified as Intelligent Electric Device (IED) ports, and wherein the ports to which a terminal or modem device are connected are identified as master ports, and wherein the apparatus includes at least one master port and at least six IED ports. 
     
     
       3. An apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the apparatus includes a port to which a printer may be connected for printing out data obtained from the IED ports. 
     
     
       4. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including means for automatically configuring a port for selected devices. 
     
     
       5. An apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the communication parameters include baud rate, number of data bits, stop bit and parity bit. 
     
     
       6. An apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the receiver-transmitter means comprises a plurality of quad universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter means, each of which services a plurality of ports. 
     
     
       7. An apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is responsive to control commands, including user-defined commands to carry out specific functions associated with the control commands. 
     
     
       8. An apparatus of  7 , including means for automatically requesting of and obtaining data from a particular port device in response to a command setting for said particular port. 
     
     
       9. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including a plurality of contact input means for accepting signals from protective relays and a plurality of contact output means for providing output signals. 
     
     
       10. An apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein at least one of those output signals is an alarm signal. 
     
     
       11. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including means for providing time information for synchronizing time clocks for each of the devices connected to said ports. 
     
     
       12. An apparatus of  11 , wherein a source of the time information is an externally generated IRIG-B time code signal. 
     
     
       13. An apparatus of  11 , including an internal clock for generating the time information. 
     
     
       14. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including means for making the apparatus transparent to received data from a port. 
     
     
       15. An apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein the apparatus can be transparent to data from more than one port simultaneously. 
     
     
       16. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including an internal modem to which an external telephone line may be connected for transmission of selected data to a remote location. 
     
     
       17. An apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the apparatus includes buffer storage associated with each port. 
     
     
       18. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including means for temporarily storing data which has been received from the individual ports and parsed. 
     
     
       19. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including a long-term non-volatile memory for storage of selected data. 
     
     
       20. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including buffer means at each port for separate storage of binary format and ASCII format data. 
     
     
       21. An apparatus of  claim 1 , including means for processing and storing fast meter binary data from IED devices. 
     
     
       22. An apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the data processing means includes means for parsing received data in accordance with selected rules. 
     
     
       23. An apparatus of claim  22    1 , wherein the parsing rules are pre-established. 
     
     
       24. An apparatus of claim  22    1 , wherein the parsing rules are defined by an operator.