Redundant Communication Architectures and Their Benefits for the Oil and Gas Industry

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standard 61850 has become firmly established for substation automation. However, it is now also more than just an Ethernet-based protocol. Now in its second edition, the protocol has expanded into additional power supply areas because it defines the engineering process, data and service models, the conformity test, and all of the communication functions for substations. In doing so, the range of applications for protection devices is expanded. Multifunction devices are designed to protect, automate, measure, and monitor high- and medium-voltage networks. The standard enables using data from devices produced by different manufacturers. Additionally, redundant data transmission within the grid is standardized. To implement such solutions, there are two new Ethernet redundancy protocols: the Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) and high-availability seamless redundancy (HSR), and these protocols were designed for mission- and time-critical applications in which communication interruptions or delays must not occur. Both protocols comply with IEC Standard 62439-3 for high-availability industrial Ethernet communication networks. PRP and HSR allow systems to continue operating even in the event of a malfunction because a communication path remains in place between the two protection devices even if a network fault occurs. This is especially important in sectors such as the oil and gas (O&G) industry to help prevent system outages. This article outlines some redundancy architectures and the benefits they offer the O&G industry.