January 2009 Section Meeting

DNP3 Protocol
The Open Standard For SCADA Communications
in the 21st Century

Program summary

While Modbus is by far the most widely used protocol used in SCADA systems in the world, its limitations make it fall far short of the increasing demand for accurate, dependable historical data collections. In a modern SCADA system, historical data is collected at the remote and transferred to the SCADA Master Station with quality and time stamped data providing a continuous historical record of events that occur between poll cycles.

DNP3, Distributed Network Protocol, which has been in wide use in the electrical Transmission and Distribution industry in North America for many years, addresses these issues and others. It is an IEEE standard protocol which provides for control security and almost instantaneous notification of critical system information allowing for detailed examination of pressure spikes and fast response to intrusions or other time-sensitive events.

Speaker

Tony Sannella of Sage Designs, Inc., will discuss the details of how DNP3 provides this functionality and briefly demonstrate its ability to recover historical data from an RTU that has temporarily lost communications with a SCADA Master Station.

Tony Sannella can be reached at Sage Designs, Inc. at ts@SageDesignsInc.com or (415) 331-8826. Website: www.SageDesignsInc.com .

Meeting Details

Date: January 15, 2009
Time: 11:30am (Lunch meeting)
Cost: TBA (Lunch meeting)
Place: TBA
RSVP: Lisa Denke at lld@bry.com or (661) 201-7842.
Directions: Online map and directions TBA

More about DNP3

DNP3 is based on the standards of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

The development of DNP3 was a comprehensive effort to achieve open, standards-based Interoperability between substation computers, RTUs, IEDs (Intelligent Electronic Devices) and master stations (except inter-master station communications) for the electric utility industry. And since the inception of DNP, the protocol has also become widely utilized in adjacent industries such as water / wastewater, transportation and the oil and gas industry.

GE Harris Energy Control Systems (originally Westronic, Inc.) developed DNP3 in the early 1990's. In November 1993, responsibility for defining further DNP3 specifications and ownership of the DNP3 specifications was turned over to the DNP3 Users Group, a group composed of utilities and vendors who are utilizing the protocol.

DNP3 is an open and public protocol. In order to ensure interoperability, longevity and upgradeability of, protocol the DNP3 Users Group has taken ownership of the protocol and assumes responsibility for its evolution. The DNP3 Users Group Technical Committee evaluates suggested modifications or additions to the protocol and then amends the protocol description as directed by the Users Group members.

For more about DNP3, please refer to the DNP Users Group website, www.dnp.org . For basic information, download "Is DNP 3.0 the Right Standard for You?" (PDF).

Graphics courtesy of Sage Designs, Inc., and DNP3 Users Group. Basic DNP3 information courtesy of DNP3 Users Group.



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Last updated Dec 4, 2008