How SCADA Systems communicate with each other

[omareladel]

Hi,

I would like to know how to interface and communicate several SCADA systems with each other, the governing communication protocols, and the codes and standards that regulate the design of such systems.

Thanks a lot.

 

[danw2]

IEC 61850 seems to a major standard for electrical power distribution, but I don't play there so you'll have to look into that on your own.

In the process world, HMI/SCADA/DCS are usually OPC clients.

The rule is that OPC client talks to one or more OPC servers and an OPC server talks to one or more clients. The OPC server connects to the hardware (with a low level driver) and handles the data tag values for transfer to/from the OPC client.

When an OPC client connects to several OPC servers, it is called OPC aggregation.
When an OPC client connects to an OPC server over a network, it can be done with OPC tunnelling.
When an OPC server connects to another OPC server to share data, it is known as OPC bridging.

I suspect that some HMI/SCADA/OPC packages can operate independently as an OPC client and an OPC server. It appears to me that a work-around for OPC-client-to-OPC-client communication is to go through a common server or tunnel OPC server to server.

 

[IRstuff]

SCADA comm is discussed fairly well in the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA#Communication_infrastructure_and_methods

TTFN
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[bohdand]

IEC 61850 does not apply to SCADA - it has to do with substation protection systems.

If you are using the same SCADA vendor on all of your systems then there is usually a proprietary Ethernet/TCP/IP based interface/protocol provided to allow them to communicate with each other.

What SCADA systems are you using? This is a broad term from small PC driven Intellution systems to full blown GE XA/21 EMS.