In a system composed of devices designed to monitor and control processes and a control system used to regulate them, transmission protocols allow information exchange between the devices and the control system. These devices (generally known as substation in the energy industry) supply the control system with current measured data from the process, while the control system regulates the devices and the process through commands.

The connection between the control system and the devices occurs through a serial or network-based transfer mode system. The transmission protocol runs over the connection, assuring that the information exchange between the control system and substation occurs securely.

A lot of different transmission protocols are implemented worldwide. The protocols are partly manufacturer specific, or released for a limited use range, or simply conditioned by the transmission technique.

Due to the demand for open systems, in the last years many manufacturer-independent standard protocols have been developed: the IEC 60870-5 family, IEC 61850, DNP3 and MODBUS.

Real Thoughts is a company that has been working in the area of transmission protocols since its founding. Thus, can take advantage of the longtime experience of its employees. Through different projects, we have worked with many different protocols.

In the process, the following focus points have arised:

We have implemented various protocols on different platforms and put them in operation, partially on site. Among these protocols is the entire IEC 60870-5 family, IEC 61850, DNP3 and MODBUS.

We are particularly proud of our broad know how about IEC 60870-5-104, the implementation of IEC 60870-5-101 based on TCP/IP. COMPROTware:Testtool has worldwide demonstrated its efficiency and user friendliness with this protocol.