PREFACE

The Power system, with its long transmission and distribution lines offers a ready made solution to our communication media requirement. To pose a question, can we make use of the available lines for communication purposes? The answer is. yes we can and we do. Although there are some practical problems, overall, this method (i e. PLCC) is in use around the globe. As stated, in this case the media is the conductor, which is basically meant to be used to transport electrical power to the load point. Let us presume that the media in question is available in single long length .The nominal electrical power has a intended frequency of 50 Hz. Even in the worst case of deviation, the change is unlikely to be greater than (+/-) 10%. This translates to a frequency band from 45Hz to 55Hz. In normal course, the flowing electrical power may have significant effective signals at 7th harmonic. Where we to count in even the 11 th harmonic, the frequency value will be 550Hz (+/-) 10%. This means that we do not expect any measurable power beyond this limit. This gives us the possibility of using the band space beyond this limit for any other purpose, specifically for communication. Even if the PLCC signal does not interfere with the radio, it could still be distorted by some harmonics of the line frequency. Hence, additional algorithm to strictly validate the message transmitted using parity validation scheme. A bigger problem is that the PLCC power at higher frequencies could enter the electrical equipment at any substation. Not only would this high frequency assist in the over heating, but also it can speed up its destruction. To avoid this problem, one places Wave traps on the end of any transmission line. This helps by attenuating the signal before it reaches the electrical equipment. The information to be transmitted may be the output of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), or that of a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), or a telephone channel to facilitate conversation between two locations. The signal in case of a PLC or RTU is in digital form and is multiplexed along with any other signal, and is up converted as a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) to the range of the PLCC. Similarly, the voice channel is also up converted to a frequency band within the PLCC range. It is normal for multiple PLCC channels to be transmitted over the same Transmission line. At the receiving end, the channels are de-multiplexed and remixed for transmission over the next stretch of PLCC, with the same or different grouping. The PLCC equipments are situated in all Power stations for Communication & Protection purposes. I have been in operation with PLCC from last three & half years. I have also

attended PLCC communication program held at NPTI Delhi. In this report I have trying my best to represent you a modern module of PLCC equipment and it topologies. But still I feel that it is a vast subject and required much attention. Suman Kumar

AKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is a privilege to acknowledge my indebtedness with warm regards and respects to Sh. Vikas Bhatt, ASE, Akashwani , Shimla to review the entire report & for their kind appreciation of my efforts and to giving me unmatched support & confidence in all aspects. He has shared all his experience and knowledge about communication with me and helped to present a Project Report on PLCC communication.

I am also thankful to our officials and my colleagues of Baira Siul power Station for their most gracious encouragement and very valued constructive suggestions. In addition, I am also very thankful to Sh. Rajesh Verma, honorable seceratory, IETE, sub centre Shimla for their most skillful service in the preparation of the manuscript.

Suman Kumar

ABSTRACT
The words Communication have a very significant relation to the word 'Community'. A Community can only exist if there is communication to bind it together. Stated in the other way: without communication, there can not be any community. This ability to communicate extensively separates humans from other animals. Communication allows us to share our experience and record our history. Hence, the importance of Communication can never be overstated. It is a fact that wherever science has come across any logical sign of communication, it has been unconditionally presumed that there exists intelligence worth our attention. A large number of scientists throughout the globe are engaged in the search for signs of coherent communication in space, which would be a proof of existence of other intelligent beings in the universe. In this report, initial part covers the background and basics of the Communication process as applied to the equipment as used in the automation of Power System. It may be noted that all the devices in modern age, which make use of such communication, are based on microprocessors and use stored program for handling the communication process. Although, for the intent of this paper, no formal education in Communication Theory and equipment is a pre-requisite, but some understanding of the working of radio and/or stored program computers is helpful.

Suman Kumar

INDUSTRY PROFILE

Baira Siul power station was the first project of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation to go on stream. It is situated in Chamba district (Surangani) of Himachal Pradesh.The Project was commissioned in 1981-82 at a cost of Rs.153 Crores, and went into commercial production on April 1, 1982. Although its first unit started working from Feb 1980.It supplies power to the Northern grid at Talwara through 96 km.long, 220KV double circuit transmission line. From here it is channelised to Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Topography of the terrain is very steep and rock is geologically very weak and unstable. Consequently there are massive landslides on access roads both during summer and winter rain. Project area is highly seismic and prone to frequent earth shocks due to constraints of steep hillside and narrow valley. There I s extreme paucity of suitable land for construction of infrastructures. It envisages utilization of combined inflow of three tributaries of Ravi river i.e. Baira, Siul, Bhaled for generation of power on run of the river basis. Years ago, what is now the Baira-Siul Power Project, used to be a fierce dense jungle clinging tenaciously to the mountain walls. The initial developmental work required 165 Km. of macadamized road to carry supplies and heavy equipment, besides bridges. The target of annual power generation of this project is approx. 750 MU. Today it is generating (60 X 3) 180 MW of power lightning the dreams of people and marching ahead for a more prosperous and well-lit India.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 Basic communication System 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 CHAPTER 2 Communication in the context of Power station Communication vs Noise Directed communication Analogue Communication Fundamentals Analogue (Voltage or Current) Modulation Digital Modulation Communication in Power System Communication Media

Page No.

6 7 8 8 9 12 15 16

Power line carrier communication System studty 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Types of Coupling Arrangements Coupling Equipments Typical Values of Coupling Losses Attenuation in Transmission line PLCC Transmission Systems Frequency Allocation in the Grid System Interference of the PLCC System with other users and vice-versa Guidelines for Providing Separate Earthing System for PLC Room 24 28 37 37 38 40 40 40

CHAPTER 3

PLCC Equipment BPL 3.1 Functional Description 3.2 Technical specifications 42 43

CHAPTER 4

PLCC Equipment PUNCOM 4.1 General Description 4.2 System functional description 4.3 Sub unit description 48 49 51

CHAPTER 5

Applications of PLCC system 5.1 SCADA system for power distribution 5.2 Hardware detail 5.3 Transducer & sensors. 67 67 70

72 GLOSSARY

COMMUNICATION
GENERAL
Communication is not just a deep-meaning word. It is a concept. It is a definition. Nevertheless, let us assign a description to it, for the purpose of this document. Communication may be defined as that coherent interaction between two entities, which leads to the transfer of some information from one to the other. The information may be Verbal, Graphic, Sensory, Actionable, Explicit or Implied. The information may be momentary or retrievable. The words Communication have a very significant relation to the word 'Community'. A Community can only exist if there is communication to bind it together. Stated the other way: without communication, there can not be any community. This ability to communicate extensively, separates humans from other animals. Communication allows us to share our experience and record our history. Hence, the importance of Communication can never be overstated. It is a fact that wherever science has come across any logical sign of communication, it has been unconditionally presumed that there exists intelligence worth our attention. A large number of scientists throughout the globe are engaged in the search for signs of coherent communication in space, which would be a proof of existence of other intelligent beings in the universe. In this chapter, initial part covers the background and basics of the Communication process as applied to the equipment as used in the automation of Power System. It may be noted that all the devices in modern age, which make use of such communication, are based on microprocessors and use stored program for handling the communication process. Although, for the intent of this paper, no formal education in Communication Theory and equipment is a pre-requisite, but some understanding of the working of radio and/or stored program computers is helpful.

1.1 ) COMMUNICATION, IN THE CONTEXT OF POWER SYSTEM

Now days communication plays a vital role in every field of Engineering. But its boundary is limited to Communication as applied to Power System. It usually addresses

the requirements of Automation and Protection functions. Even of this small set, we limit ourselves to that subset which may be represented as electrical signal. There are two important facets of Communication: It's content. It's method or procedure.

Loosely stated, when we communicate, the information contained in the spoken words (or the written words or the body language) is the content. Whereas, the language, the volume, the grammar, the intonation, the gesticulation, etc. make up the procedure of communication. Since we can not predict the content, which will be ever changing, in this document, we shall limit ourselves to this second part, i.e. the Method or the Procedure of Communication. Let us start with some fundamentals. In our model, there is a source that creates/ sends the information, and-a destination, which receives the information. There is also a media, which transports the information from the source to the destination, e.g., when I speak, I create some verbal information. Hence, I am the source. When you listen, you receive the information. Hence, you are the destination. Assuming that we are near each other and the information is verbal, Air is the media that transports the information. Similarly, we can take example of a letter sent by me to you. Here, the letter is the content while the postal infrastructure is the media. Please note that the definition of the source or destination may be momentary, since, most communication may be bidirectional, i.e. the source and the destination may interchange their roles, many times during the observation period.

1.2) Communication vs. Noise

It is to be noted that a piece of information becomes a communication only if the receiver understands it i.e. the information must be coherent. If you stand in a crowded place, you would be listening to a whole lot of noises. However, as these noises might not convey anything to you, this act of listening would not classify as communication. To take this example a little further, if you and I stand in a crowded market place and talk, there is a communication taking place between us. But all the other noises around us make the conversation difficult. In fact, we may have to repeat ourselves time and again, in order for the communication to continue. Therefore, we can define noise as that unwanted signal which is not coherent in itself, and which hinders the legitimate communication. For our next example, let us presume that a tourist asks you the way to some place. If the tourist does not share a common language with you, you will not understand his

request and hence no communication can take place. In this condition, you need the services of an interpreter who knows both the languages and is able to translate from one language to the other 'on-the-fly'. Such a facility is called a gateway or a bridge. If we expand this example to a group of tourists, who, in addition to talking to you, are also conversing among themselves. Now the job of the interpreter is more difficult as he has to filter out those parts of the conversation meant for you, translate those and pass it on to you. In the reverse direction, he has not only to translate whatever you say, but also to direct it to the right tourist addressed by you. In our language, the interpreter would be working as a router. Let us come to the essentials of Communication theory. We shall be limiting ourselves to communication by electronic means, i.e. there is encoded electrical information being conveyed from source to destination. Obviously, the electronic equipment and the connecting cables or the electromagnetic waves constitute the media. A typical source would be a transducer, which outputs an electrical signal that is mathematically related to the input quantity. The input may be an electrical or a mechanical or a chemical signal which needs to be measured. A typical destination would be an electrical or a mechanical device, which displays a value proportionate to its input signal, and hence to the original input of the transducer. Such an output device would be termed as a meter. With the present day technology, the meter is mostly represented by a computer's visual display unit (VDU).

1.3) Directed Communication

A stream of communication which is unidirectional, i.e. it flows over the media always in one direction, is termed as 'Simplex' communication. If the scheme allows communication in both directions, with the restriction that at a given moment, the stream of communication flows in one direction only, the process is termed as 'Half duplex'. Finely, if the scheme allows bi-directional communication, without restriction, the process is termed as 'Full Duplex'. The process definition is based on the property of the media enabling uni-directional or bi-directional communication. For example, 'Full Duplex' does not mean that simultaneous bi-directional communication must take place at all time. A telephonic conversation, as seen by the user, is full duplex, as it works on a single pair of wire. However, in technical sense, the signal between terminal exchanges is sent over two pairs of wire, one pair for each direction. Hence, the representative signal flows over two separate pairs, whereby each pair carries a simplex signal. A simplex signal can be easily amplified, which allows the useful signal to be received overmuch longer distance.

Just to complete this explanation, many seemingly half-duplex communication channels have associated low-bandwidth reverse direction signal channels, to enable flow control. There are two fundamental types of electrical systems for communication. These are classified as Analogue communication and Digital communication. Now-a-days, most of the signals in a power plant are digital. However, we shall start with the older Analogue communication. This would be helpful in understanding the fundamentals of communication.

1.4) Analogue Communication Fundamentals

Electricity has two basic measurable qualities, Voltage and Current. However, in any given circuit with non-variable impedance, these two are related and hence do not lend themselves as independent carriers of information. Let us choose Voltage as an independent carrier. If we consider an Alternating Current (AC) signal, it has two other independent qualities, namely, frequency and phase. We conclude, an independent carrier has three qualities, which may be modified ('modulated') to carry information. For simplicity's sake, we shall take up each case separately. Why do we require modulation? Why can't we transmit the signal as produced by the sensor device? The reason is, the signal power produced by the sensor is minute. If we send it over practical distances, the received signal would not be of any use. In addition, in a real life case, we would be dealing with multiple sensors. It would be rather costly and impractical to take every signal individually, considering the wiring requirement alone. By modulating the signal, we have the possibility of amplifying, to send the signal over longer distances, and multiplexing, to better utilise the transmission path/ media.

1.5) Analogue (Voltage or Current) Modulation

If the signal to be modified is a Direct Current (DC), the only available modulation is the amplitude modulation. The output is a signal whose strength of the current (so also the voltage) varies as per the input signal. If we check the modulated signal in frequency domain, we shall observe the presence of a frequency band starting from zero (i.e. DC) and ranging up to the highest frequency present in the input signal. The output signal is termed as the 'Base-Band', as it drops down to zero frequency. The process of modulation and demodulation is very simple and low cost. What are the negative issues? Firstly, the output signal is uni-polar, i.e. the average value of the power of the modulated signal is not zero. Hence, there is higher loss of power over the transmission path. Secondly, any amplifier or filter used on this signal

would need to have a linier characteristic over the entire frequency band from DC up to the highest frequency. At base-band level, this is not simple and may not be practical! Hence, DC modulation is not preferred. Instead, we resort to Alternate Current (AC) modulation. In this case, the envelope of the amplitude of the carrier signal is modified in accordance with the base signal. The carrier is an AC signal whose frequency is significantly more than the highest frequency of the base signal. If we observe the waveform of the result, it would be a signal where the amplitude of the carrier varies as the amplitude of the base signal. It is only necessary to 'ADD' the two signals. In the frequency domain, the modified signal shows up as a band around the carrier frequency. If 'c' be the carrier frequency and 1' be the highest frequency in the base signal then the resulting signal occupies the frequency range 'c-f till 'c+f. such a signal is termed as 'Double-side band'(DSB). The range 'c-f is called lower band and the range 'c+f is called the upper band. Most AM radio stations follow this scheme, as de-modulation is the simple act of elimination of half the amplitude and passing the rest through a low pass filter. Since the lower or the upper band have the same information, one can eliminate one of them before transmission. Such a signal is termed as Single Side Band or SSB. An SSB signal is bandwidth efficient. However, it requires a more complex circuit for encoding or decoding (Modulation/ Demodulation). In general, the carrier frequency is very high as compared to the highest modulating frequency. This means that the bandwidth of the modulated signal is only a fraction of the carrier frequency. Hence, designing a band-pass filter or an amplifier, which is linier over the required frequency band, is much less complex. Since, both DSB or the SSB signals have a carrier signal included, even the most efficient signal can not remove the carrier frequency without distorting some of the lowest frequencies of the useful signal. The remedy is to avoid using lower frequencies in the base signal. If we consider the Human voice, the audible range starts from (approximately) fifty Hz.

Amplitude Modulation

10

Waveshape of Modulating Signal

11

Amplitude Modulation
The waveforms for AM modulation is shown in fig. Here carrier amplitude varies in accordance to the modulated signal and all other two parameters remains unchanged i.e. frequency & phase.

Frequency Modulation
The waveforms for FM modulation is shown in fig. Here carrier frequency deviate in accordance to the modulated signal and all other two parameters remains unchanged i.e. amplitude & phase. As the information is present in frequency deviation and not in amplitude, this type of modulation is very much immune to noise.

Frequency Modulation waveforms Constraints in Communication with technology

Obviously, any signal to be useful, has to cover some distance. The signal is subjected to attenuation, over that distance. In theory, a signal created by analogue modulation can be transmitted over longer distances by amplifying it repeatedly. This brings us to the phenomena of NOISE. We define noise as the unwanted addition to the useful signal The source of noise could be multi-fold. Every element (including the transmission media) produces thermal noise due to the internal movement of the atomic particles. Over and above that, the transmission media also picks up undesirable signals due to capacitive or inductive coupling. Every time we amplify the useful signal, we end up amplifying the noise component, as well. The only usable method available to us is to inject the useful signal with highest possible power right at the first stage. And hope that Signal-to-Noise ratio will still favor us at the point of demodulation. In spite of the above stated negative factors, Analogue modulation is still very popular. The entire set of present day radio or Television broadcast is still using this mode. The reason is to be found in the population of receiving sets (Radio or Television) which will not be discarded so fast. The technology is well known, manufacturing is wide-spread, There are a large number of repair-technicians, who are well versed in this technology. All these tend to act as retardation magnets, preventing the fast introduction of-new improved technology. Introduction of a new technology can be slowed down. But it can not be stopped. Newer, advanced methods will come up, simply because of the higher advantages they bring in. This trend is supplemented by improved and cheaper manufacturing processes, simpler designs and a host of other advantages. Hence, we do no longer question whether the new ideas could be introduced. We only need to answer 'when?'. What new technology are we talking of? Digital Communication!

1.6) Digital Modulation

Before we come to digital modulation, let us look at the background of this technology. The real world produces analogue signals. For example, when we speak, we produce an analogue signal set. When we listen, we hear analogue signals. We conclude that in order to use Digital Modulation, we need to convert the original signal to a digital signal at the start of the process, and the other way round at the end of the process.

Another major contributor to digital modulation is the computer. The computer is designed to operate in the digital domain. So, it is the most suited device to take advantage of digital modulation. In fact, this is the start of the multimedia applications and that of Voice-&-data' convergence.

Let us first look at the process of digitization of any analogue signal. Nyquist proved that if we start with an analogue signal with the highest frequency component as 'f, and if we take at least '2f uniform samples per second, the set of samples is sufficient and necessary to define the original signal. For example, a standard telephone signal has a frequency band from 300 Hz till 3400 Hz. As per Nyquist theorem, if this signal is sampled at the rate of 6800 samples per second or better, we can recover the original signal faithfully. In practice, we need to over sample the signal, to account for the real-life deficiencies in the system. This deficiency may be the limitations of the electronic components or even the poor cut off limits of the filters in use. If we take an example, the signal would be sampled at the rate of 8 k samples/ second. So, now we have discrete samples. Each sample consist of a value, which is

the amplitude of the signal at that time point, which is still an analogue quantity. For the full conversation to a digital signal, the amplitude must be digitized. For this, we need to decide on two fundamentals. First, we have to assume maximum amplitude of the sample. This value defines our highest value of the signal in practical world. Second, with respect to this maximum, we need to assume or to define the smallest change of amplitude, which should be detected (resolved) by our system. While, we may not see a relation between these two quantities, however, for an efficient system, the maximum amplitude 'A should be related to the minimum resolution V by a relation defined by the equation; A/r =2n, where 'n' is an integer, in other words, to represent the amplitude A', in terms of resolution 'r', we require exactly n' bits. The 'n' bits define a binary number such that 'r', when raised to the 'nth power, equals 'A. Obviously, 'r is an arbitrary quantity chosen by us. The number of bits 'n' may be a limit imposed by practical considerations of system design. Hence, the equation given above, may not always hold. In this case, the amplitude 'A might be incorrect in the binary representation by the least count of the binary number, which is r'. You would note that, for the same value A', r' can be made smaller, if we increase n. Larger the number of bits, better is the resolution. For the present, we neglect this error. We presume that 8 bits is sufficient for our system. Therefore, we need to work out for our example that there are 8k samples per second, and each sample requires 8 bits to represent each sample. Now our representation has 8k times 8 bits, which is equal to 64 k bits per second. This is our digital representation of a standard telephone signal. Till now the original signal (with the maximum frequency as 3400 Hz) has been converted to a pure digital signal of 64k bits per second. As the first approximation, we presume that the converted signal contains only the most basic frequency and no harmonics. Hence, highest frequency in the converted signal is 64 kHz. over 8 times the original analogue signal. What have we gained with this conversion? As it turns out: Plenty! Let us first consider the 'bad' points: A signal with the highest frequency limit of 3.4 kHz has been converted to a signal with the highest frequency, which is many-fold multiple of the earlier limit. A signal which could be recovered by a simple diode has been distorted to a form requiring special circuits for 'encoding' and 'decoding'.

While the analogue signal was allowed any value of the amplitude, the new form allows only a set of discrete values. In general, the decoded signal, in most cases, shall not be an exact replica of the original signal.

What are the good points?

The encoded signal is composed of bits. Each bit is allowed only two states, 'one' or zero', 'true' or false', yes' or no', 'up 'or' down', 'high or low', 'true' or false', and so on. This means, the interpretation of the signal is no longer a quantity or a value. It may be interpreted as per the situation.

The bits can take much more distortion. For example, up to 50% distortion can be tolerated. So long as the bit takes a value greater than half, we presume it to be a 'one'. Else, it is taken as 'zero'. This means that the level of distortion has to extremely high for the signal to be misinterpreted.

As a corollary to the above, this digital signal can be transmitted over long distances, since 'Signal-to-noise' ratio is no longer an issue. At appropriate distance, the signal is recovered, reformed and retransmitted. At every reformation step, the noise component is eliminated.

Since the signal is binary (having two values!), it is subject to binary logic processing. For example, 'AND'. OR', 'XOR'. etc. This processing requires only the state of the signal, not its absolute value. This enables use of standard pre-formulated logic elements, which are usable in most conditions. With this, the spares and the repair handling become modular.

Since, we are dealing with a sequence of bits, the exact width of the bit is not important. This has two consequences, firstly, the speed of transmission of the bits is no longer relevant to content encoded in it. Secondly, the rate of processing need no longer be linear. With the first, we can accommodate a number of bit streams into one flow of information. We must be able to separate the bit-streams, when required. This is the concept of multiplexing. With the second, we can buffer the bit signal, or, even more important, we can store the information and reprocess it on our terms. This is the idea behind any digital computer.

In view of the limit of two states, each bit is uniquely identified with reference to its position in the sequence and its value. A set of bits is distinct and can be counted. Therefore, a digital signal can take additional processing with introduction of redundancy, to enable error check and security analysis.

With the above listed qualifiers, it is quite evident that the advantages of digital modulation far outweigh the apparent disadvantages. With the introduction of Integrated Circuits (IC) and its increasing density, the cost of making digital circuits has dropped drastically, taking care of the major problem point. The addition of high-speed A/D converters (Analogue to Digital) and D/A converters has only aided this process. Fact remains, although Radio and Television, both remain mainly in the domain of old analogue design (barring the add-ons like auto-tuning, remote control, etc.), but the communication technology, has taken to digital domain and computers, like duck to water. Today, even in a semi-developed country like India, almost the entire communication and the multi-media infrastructure is based on digital domain.

1.7) COMMUNICATION IN POWER SYSTEM The growth of an economy is based on the availability of resources. Electrical power is one of the most important resource for any country. It is special, since Electricity does not occur naturally. It has to be created using other natural resources. Today, the human society is irrevocably dependent on this un-natural resource. Equally important is the assurance or reliability of Power Supply. A lot of money is spent every year on ensuring reliability of the power system. The systems we create for preventing disasters and protecting the power system fall in the category of Protection Devices. On the other hand, the systems which are applied to assure reliable operation of all devices in the power system are termed as Automation. The automation devices monitor all important parameters of the system and control the process either automatically or by alerting a supervisory operator. In either case, whether it is the protection unit or the automation unit, it is required to communicate with the device under supervision and with the operator. These apart, there is a need to acquire and store relevant data for future analysis. Here the requirement is for the data generating device to communicate with the storage device. Related to power, there are three distinct phases. First, the power is produced (Power Generation). Second, power is sent to the load centers (Power Transmission).

Lastly, the available power is given over to the users (Power Distribution). The communication required for each of these phases differs in importance and priority. The generating plant has the responsibility to generate power in adequate quantity, with stable parameters and with lowest cost. To do this, there are a number of control, protection and supervisory systems at the power station. These systems communicate with each other and with plant operators to inform the relevant information and to take the necessary instructions, to properly supervise the plant and to protect it from fail operations.

1.8) Communication Media

One important fact is that Communication requires a media. Hence, in the absence of a suitable media, communication does not take place. When we talk, the media in use is the air, and the method used is vibration of air particles. When we speak, our vocal cord sets the surrounding air particles in vibration. The vibration is transferred to the neighboring particles, thereby spreading the sound. Ultimately, the sound reaches the ear of the recipient, causing vibrations in the ear-drums. The rest of the processing is in the brain, whereby the recipient decodes the sound to understand its meaning. If there were no air surrounding us. there would not be any verbal communication, as we know it. May be humans would have developed some alternate means. At this point, we should know some other modes of communication. It will be noticed that all these other modes are meant for non-verbal communication, mainly machine oriented. Listed below are some of the more important communication media.

Wire Conductor
It is the simplest mode of communication Just string a metal wire (actually a pair of wires, to provide (or a return path for the electrical current) between the source and the recipient, and let The source send a modulated electrical signal over the wire The receiver will demodulate the signal, to recover the communication sent I n general such a connection may only be used for a point-to-point serial link. On the positive side is the simplicity of the connection, ease of stringing, easy diagnostics, etc On the other hand, we have to connect every source to every receiver There has to be a method of selecting the right path The metal (usually, copper) is not exactly cheap Repair means (ho length of wire has to be replaced in the event of breakage. failure or corrosion. Worst of all, we may have to isolate the entire length of wire, to prevent short-circuit.

The frequency characteristics of a cable do not allow even marginally high frequency signal component to propagate properly, over any practical distance Hence, this mode is only suitable for lower frequency range signals. One mote problem is the fact that any long wire act like an antenna and radiates energy, as also receives radio waves from the environment The radiation causes energy losses and the received radio energy causes disturbance in the useful signal. In spite of these negative points, cable/ wire is the most used communication media with almost the entire terrestrial telephone last-mile connection being based on it

Power line Carrier Communication

The Power system, with its long transmission and distribution lines offers a ready made solution to our communication media requirement. To pose a question, can we make use of the available lines for communication purposes? The answer is. yes we can and we do. Although there are some practical problems, overall, this method (i e. PLCC) is in use around the globe. As stated, in this case the media is the conductor, which is basically meant to be used to transport electrical power to the load point. Let us presume that the media in question is available in single long length .The nominal electrical power has a intended frequency of 50 Hz. Even in the worst case of deviation, the change is unlikely to be greater than (+/-) 10%. This translates to a frequency band from 45Hz to 55Hz. In normal course, the flowing electrical power may have significant effective signals at 7th harmonic. Where we to count in even the 11th harmonic, the frequency value will be 550Hz (+/-) 10%. This means that we do not expect any measurable power beyond this limit. This gives us the possibility of using the band space beyond this limit for any other purpose, specifically for communication. A standard PLCC configuration uses the frequency band 100kHz to 500kHz, to ride piggyback on the transmission lines (and some distribution lines), to carry on communication between two places. The band beyond 500kHz is left out since this zone is in use by Medium Wave Radio Transmission System. A transmission line with this high a frequency radiates radio signal, which is likely to interfere with any legitimate Radio signal in the vicinity. Even if the PLCC signal does not interfere with the radio, it could still be distorted by some harmonics of the line frequency. Hence, additional algorithm to strictly validate the message transmitted using parity validation scheme. A bigger problem is that the PLCC power at higher frequencies could enter the electrical equipment at any sub-station, enroute. Not only would this high frequency assist in the over heating, but

also it can speed up its destruction. To avoid this problem, one places Wave traps on the end of any transmission line. This helps by attenuating the signal before it reaches the electrical equipment. The information to be transmitted may be the output of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), or that of a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), or a telephone channel to facilitate conversation between two locations. The signal in case of a PLC or RTU is in digital form and is multiplexed along with any other signal, and is up converted as a Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) to the range of the PLCC. Similarly, the voice channel is also up converted to a frequency band within the PLCC range. For this purpose, the frequency band in use by PLCC is sliced into a number of small channels, whereby, it is always possible to combine a few small channels into a seamless larger channel. This mechanism is standardized, only predefined sub-bands are permissible. The multiplexing feature is built in to the PLCC equipment. It is normal for multiple PLCC channels to be transmitted over the same Transmission line. At the receiving end, the channels are de-multiplexed and remixed for transmission over the next stretch of PLCC, with the same or different grouping.

Radio Waves
These are ideally suited for long distance transmission. The choice of right frequency will allow the signal to be carried over thousands of kilometers. The first major problem is the crowded frequency spectrum. All over the world, there are functioning Radio stations. That hardly leaves any spectrum free for this use. To the extent it is feasible, the technology is the same as for PLCC. The useful signals are multiplexed and then translated around the frequency to be used. The combined signal is broadcast and the intended receiver receives it. After de-multiplexing, the signal is available for use. The problems with this method is that the radio wave is not directional hence we waste a lot of power aimlessly. The broadcast signal is negatively affected by spurious signals (noise) due to overlapping neighboring channels and problem of sharp filtering. An alternate technique of 'spread spectrum' has been developed, which allocates not just one channel but a band of channels. While transmitting, the multiplexed signal is broadcast over any one channel in the band. However, this channel is not fixed allocated. The algorithm keeps changing the channel. This way many signals can use the same band and no one signal is affected by noise in any one channel.

The radio wave technique may not be the most suitable when alternate technologies are feasible. But, if the situation calls for mobile stations, this is the best solution in the classical terms.

Microwave
The basic technique is the same as for Radio Waves. However, one major difference is the carrier frequency in use. The Microwave system uses frequencies in the Gigahertz range. At this level, the wave travels almost in a straight line (in the line of sight). This property enables us to direct the transmitted wave (with the signal) in a narrow direction. This has two major advantages. Firstly, no power is wasted since all the power is directed. Secondly, we can reuse the same frequency as long as there is no overlap as per 'line of sight'. The one disadvantage is that distance between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna is limited by the line of sight' restriction. For longer distances, we need to set up repeater stations, in between.

VSAT (Very Small aperture device)

The principle of deployment of VSAT is same as for Microwave. The multiplexed signal is fed to the transmitter. The output of that goes to the antenna, which has very small dimensions. The dish may be of 60 cms to about 1 M diameter. The signal goes to a geostationary satellite about 36000kM out in the space. In a normal case, the satellite redirects the signal to the service provider's central computer (usually called a

'HUB'). The hub has two main tasks. First, it resends the signal to the same satellite, but with a different address. The satellite retransmits the signal back to earth, where the addressed receiver collects it. This mode is referred to as TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Since the signal travels up and down twice, we may call it Double Hop method. Apart from changing address, the hub keeps the traffic details for statistics and billing purposes In a different mode, the signal sent to the satellite is retransmitted directly to the intended receiver, without intervention by the hub. This is termed as DAMA (Duel Address Multiple Access). A variation of this mode is when the two locations are logically linked to each other, creating a pseudo- permanent connection. A signal sent from one location is compulsorily sent to the partner location. This method is named as PAMA (Permanent Address Multiple access). In these two cases, the role of the hub is limited to statistics and billing. Being largely non-directional, VSAT finds ready application in cases where the bandwidth requirement is low and it is not feasible or not economical to set up any other type of communication link. Within limits, the VSAT link is independent of location. Hence, may use it cases where the location of the ground terminal may need to be changed frequently. However, VSAT is not usable as a mobile communication link.

A VSAT link allows low to medium bandwidths. The information transmission is in digital domain.

Fiber-Optic Cable
With the introduction of Laser (Light Amplification and Stimulated Emission of Radiation), a powerful method of carrying communication over long distances using light waves, is available. However, its practical application has been possible only ever since the Fiber-Optic cables became a reality. This allows the Laser beam to follow a set path, i.e. the path of the FO cable. Now it is possible to create communication link, with very high bandwidth, over long distances. In fact, as most of the signals are in digital domain, with the use of repeaters, we can span the globe. Various communication oriented organizations have together, laid sea cable around the earth. The available bandwidth is in many Gigahertzes. Apart from facilitating the entire international telephone traffic, these sub-sea cables also carry the load of the Internet.

A FO cable is built around thin glass of transparent plastic fibers. Depending on manufacturing process, the fiber could be single mode or Multi mode. A single mode fiber has the same optical density across the length and breadth of the fiber. It is usually available in 9 micron thickness. The width profile is cylindrical and the end faces are polished. A Laser source is applied on one face and the geometry allows the light beam to travel through the length of the cable. Where ever, the beam strikes the side wall, it suffers a total internal reflection. This property allows the beam to remain in the FO cable for total length of the cable, even if the cable is bent. A light detector is placed at the other face of the FO cable. As the traveling beam emerges out of the cable face, it is detected and converted for whatever post processing.

One fiber is only used for a simplex communication. Hence, a pair of fibers is required for two sided duplex connection. Each fiber has a cladding of another transparent material. This allows the fiber to have defined change of optical density, to aid in the Total Internal Reflection. Multiple Fibers share the same sheathing and external cladding with or without armoring. Submarine cables have addition protection from sea chemicals and the extra stress the cable has to undergo, when being laid. A single mode cable is available in drum lengths of 10 to 20 km. After that a repeater is required to rebuild the signal and pass it on to the next cable.

POWER LINE CARRIER COMMUNICATION -SYSTEM STUDY

2)

Introduction:
For smooth systems operation an economical, dependable and reliable means of

communication between various generating stations, sub-stations and load dispatch centre is necessary. In emergency, reliable and economical control of power generation and variation in load conditions which causes variations in frequency is of paramount importance in systems operation. In such a situation PLCC plays the vital role. The idea of using PLCC was first thought of at about the beginning of this centaury and the practical applications were made in several countries from 1920 onwards. These system have now developed into extremely sophisticated and complicated PLCC system and are widely used in all modern power systems. The frequency band allocated by the Authority for PLCC is 50 KHz. to 500 KHz. The entire PLCC network is planned by various carrier frequencies within the band of 50-500 KHz. The carrier frequency is modulated by voice frequency and the modulated signal is sent over the power lines. was more common. In the earlier systems double side band AM modulation The modern practice is to use exclusively single side band

amplitude modulation system. Frequency modulation is rarely used because of its considerable band width requirements. Since the telephone communication systems work at low voltages they cannot be connected directly to the EHV (extra high voltage) lines. Hence the suitably designed coupling devices are used. These devices consist of HV capacitor or coupling voltage transformers, HV line traps, line matching units, drainage coils, LAs and coaxial H.F. cable connecting the device to the PLCC equipment. The PLCC system is classified into two types viz. Fixed Frequency System and wave Change-over System. In case of fixed frequency system one pair of TX-RX carrier frequency is assigned in between, whereas in WCC-System one pair of TX-RX carrier frequency is assigned for a group of sub-stations. The WCO-System is utilized for less import EHV line (66K.V). The fixed frequency System is suitable for communication of speech and other signals such as protection signals, power system data, status signal and supervisory control signals. data, The speech and supervisory control signals are multiplexed and then transmitted. transmit-receive

Basic PLCC System

Limitations:
Only low carrier frequency range (50-500 KHz) is suitable for EHV long lines and hence limited carrier hand width alone is available. For higher speeds of data transmission PLCC is not suitable. Speed of 100-

600 baud with speech and 1200 baud without speech is the ultimate limit. Signal-Power handling limitation of coupling equipments do not permit the use of more than four PLCCs in a section. If series and random PLCC links are used for long distances, the quality of speech and data transmission is poor due to group - delay, distortion and attenuation. PI.CC system is suitable for schemes where small error rate is tolerable.

2.1)
1) 2) 3)

Types of Coupling Arrangements

Phase to ground coupling Phase to phase coupling Inter circuit coupling

The coupling methods which are normally employed are:-

a)

Phase to Ground Coupling:

In this arrangement only one phase-conductor is used to connect wave trap,

coupling capacitor, line-matching unit. The remaining two phase-conductors though not connected to the line trap and coupling capacitor, carry the portion of carrier signals because of the capacitance between the conductors. Thus carrier energy is lost; also the radiation losses are high as earthing form a part of the circuit and noise pick up is correspondingly higher. This method is inefficient

and hence utilized for short lines of less importance (66KV). arrangement is shown in Fig. 1. b) Phase to Phase Coupling:

The

In this type of coupling wave traps and coupling capacitors are connected on two phase conductors as shown in fig.2. The carrier current transmission is made through these conductors and third conductor has no appreciable influence on the carrier current transmission. The signal attenuation is less as compared to phase to ground system signal transmission. However. a little carrier energy carried by third conductor because of capacitive effect is lost. Phase to phase coupling is widely used and is more reliable over longer distances.

c)

Inter-circuit Coupling:
This is similar to phase lo phase coupling but the difference that the two

phase conductors used for communication belong to two different power circuits carried on common towers. This type of coupling should not be employed where two feeders are carried on two separate set of towers as it then behaves more like a double phase to ground coupling and is found to be impractical. The arrangement of inter-circuit-coupling is shown in fig.

2.2) Coupling Equipments Coupling Capacitor

The function of CC is lo transmit high frequency low voltage signals through the EHV lines. The coupling capacitors must withstand the full power voltage of the line plus additional surges without any breakdown. The particular value of capacitance of CC is Too low a value will present a a compromise between two conflicting requirements.

large reactance to carrier currents while too high value will be uneconomical to build and would pass large currents at 50 Hz. CC ranges from 66KV to 500KV ratings and has capacitances from 2000 pf to 12000 pf. The loss angle (tan delta) and the insertion The CCs are loss are of great significance for the carrier frequencies because of requirement of low impedance path for transmission of carrier frequencies through CC. designed and manufactured accordingly. No. 358 Art. 10.1) states that for a transmission frequency of resistance (equivalent series resistance) of maximum 40 ohm. with the loss angle according to the following formula: Rs = (Tan /2 fc) x 109 Fig 4 and 5 show the loss angle tan and equivalent series resistance for The insertion loss caused by Recommendations as per IEC (Publication 40 KHz all coupling

capacitors with the capacitance of at least 2000 pf must have an inherent ohmic This can be calculated

various capacitances depending upon carrier frequency. transmission.

the equivalent series resistance is of significance for a good high frequency

Capacitor voltage transformer is also used in place of CC which serves double purpose one for PLCC and other for instrumentation

Cautions for Handling Coupling Capacitors

Coupling capacitors must he transport in up-right position only in wooden crates. 2) During transportation and storage the terminals of CC must be circuited for safety of personnel. If for any reason a CC has been stored horizontally, it should be kept tor a minimum period of 72 hours before installation lines vertically short packed

and energizing on lillV

Inspect the CC thoroughly for any damage, thin crack in porcelain leakage of oil before installation. Such CCs should be rejected Otherwise, it may result in explosion at the instant of totalK.

and

energisation.

CC is installed on Steel pedestal. The steel structure is solidh earthed in the switchyard. Bottom ground point of CC must be connected to the earth station.

Line Trap (Wave Trap):

These are rated for full line current and suitably insulated for high voltages. Placed in series with power line they offer high impedance to carrier frequencies but low impedance to 50 Hz power current. Mounting arrangement is pedestal type or suspension type. A wave trap is always provided with protective device and usually fitted with capacitor tuning-device to meet the required frequency band, usually single wide-band (50-500 KHz) or two bands of 100-175 KHz and 150-500 KHz. The efficiency of a wave trap depends on the impedance it offers to the carrier frequency currents. This impedance should be more than or at least equal to the characteristic impedance of the line. For judging the efficiency of a trap its insertion loss and blocking attenuation are measured. The insertion loss indicates how much the carrier signal becomes attenuated at the entry of the wave trap when the system impedance is zero i.e. line is grounded immediately after the wave trap, for the well designed wave trap the insertion loss will be of the order of 1 to 3 db. The blocking attenuation indicates the relative magnitude of carrier signal in the blocked part of the system compared to the signal in the unblocked part. For an ideal trap the blocking attenuation would be infinite as the carrier voltage after the trap would be zero. The values of rated continuous currents are 100. 200. 400, 630, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 2000 and 4000 Amps. The corresponding short circuit currents are 2.5KA,5, 10, 16, 20, 25, 31, 35, 40, 50 KA. The Voltage developed across line trap V =2 f L x Tan Protective device (L.A) of line trap developed across line trap. is rated for 15% more than the voltage

Line Matching Unit (Coupling Device) :

The LMU together with a CC forms a high-pass frequencies, chosen necessary to whose cancel matching ratio. For efficient coupling the reactance filter at for the carrier required carrier it is

lower cut-off is determined by the rating of CC and the frequencies, of the coupling capacitor by means of

inductance in the coupling device, and to match the impedance of the power line. For design and planning purposes the power line impedance are typically taken as 400 ohms for phase to ground coupling and 600 ohm for phase to phase coupling. The transformers which arc included in LMU are typi call y provided with several taps to facilitate optimum impedance matching between the PLCC terminal and the power line. Proper impedance match at both parts of the and to LMU is important for maximum power transfer prevent undesirable standing waves due to

reflections at a mismatched junction and to permit optimum balancing of the RF

hybrid, if used.

The degree of impedance matching is preferably expressed in The ratio of the incident power lo the reflected power wave is The

terms of return loss.

called the return loss or echo attenuation and it is expressed in decibels (db). carrier frequency current to appear in the output of the unit.

drainage coil serves to ground the power frequency current of the CC and allows the The coarse voltage arrester consists of an air gap which sparks over at about 2 KV and protects the LMU against the line surges. The grounding switch is kept open in normal condition, and is closed if any work is to be done on LMU. The matching transformer is insulated for 7-10 KV between the two windings and performs two functions. Firstly it isolates the communication equipment from the power line. Secondly it serves to match the characteristic impedance of the power line 400-600 ohms to that of the coaxial cable to communication equipment (12.5 or 75 ohm). The LMU is generally tuned to a wide band of carrier frequencies 50-500 KHz

H.F Cable: - These are two types

Balanced cable of 150 ohm having two copper conductors Unbalanced coaxial cable of 125 ohm or 75 ohm having one conductor centrally situated. The shield of both cables is at the ground potential. The H.F cable is used for

connecting the LMU with the PLCC terminal equipment as well as for connecting other LMU and hybrid transformer for formulating phase to phase coupling. The H.F. cable is protected by a shield of copper tape armoring and steel wire armoring. The smallest bending permissible radius R is equal to 15 to 20 times the cable diameter D.

HF Cable termination at PLCC end

HF cable with BNC Connector

2.3)

Typical Values of Coupling Losses:(a) Phase to phase coupling (b) Phase to ground coupling
(c) H.F. Cable : 4.4 to 7.8 db : 7.8 db to 11.3 db : 2.2 lo 4.4 db per Km for Frequencies between 100-300 KHz.

2.4)

Attenuation in Transmission line :The attenuation due to transmission line strongly depends upon the d/h ratio,

corresponding to the high proportion of HF. losses in the ground compared with the total losses. Spacingd is the mean distance between the coupled conductors, considering the changes in spacing due to transposition of EHV lines. With phase to earth coupling it is the mean distance between the coupled conductor and the two adjacent conductors. Height h" is the mean height of the conductor above ground on the towers which is normally easier to determine than the mean height of the conductor over the total route, depending on the sag of the conductor and the terrain conditions, although the later height would furnish more dependable values. The following table shows the values of attenuation for two different d/h ratios. Frequency 50 Khz Attenuation per 100KM length D/h =0.2 D/h = 0.4

1.75 db 100 Khz 200 Khz 300 Khz 400 Khz 2.63 db 4.35 db 5.25 db 6.6 db

1.5 db 6.6 db 12.2 db 18.3 db 24.4 db

Thus the configuration of EHV lines determines the line attenuation for different carrier frequencies.

2.5)
1) 2) 3)

PLCC Transmission Systems:

Amplitude modulation with carrier and double side band transmission Amplitude modulation with single side band suppressed carrier transmission. Frequency modulation. In earlier system the amplitude modulation with double side band transmission

Three different transmission methods can be employed, they are

methods were employed. In this system the speech frequencies transmitted were 3002400 Hz when the carrier was modulated with these frequencies, the resulting side bands took up a band-width of 4800 Hz. Thus the available H.F. band was divided into a number of channels each 5 KHz wide with nominal carrier frequency located in the centre of the channel. Secondly same information was contained in the lower side band and upper side band. Thus there was wastage of power for transmission of bands. Due to advancement of technology this DSB trans-method has become obsolete. In modern practice the PLCC equipments are designed for amplitude modulation with single band suppressed carrier transmission. Single side band transmission has the following advantages. 1. The band-width requirement per channel is exactly half that of double side band transmission. Hence the twice the number of channels can be accommodated in the available band of frequencies compared to D.S.B. system. 2. As the receiver accepts only half the band of frequencies the noise input to the receiver is correspondingly reduced. This results in better signal to noise ratio and clarity of speech and other signals. 3. As the carrier and one side band are not transmitted the power required for this is saved, i.e. SSB signals require less transmitter power for being equally effective as DSB signals.

2.51)

Frequency modulation transmission

The FM transmission system is not generally used in PLCC network as it requires larger bandwidth per channel and it is not economical although the signal quality is better due to wider band. The SSB technique is not possible in FM-transmission because

the carrier frequency affects the shape of the wave,( i.e. frequency deviation in carrier frequency according to amplitude of modulated signal) & amplitude remaining constant.

2.52)

Operating Principle of SSB-AM-PLCC Terminal:

The PLC terminals are intended for the transmission of speech, tele-metering, teleprinting, tele-control, tele-indication and tele-protection signals in the carrier frequency band of 50-500 KHz. The carrier voltage for up conversion is drawn from a binary frequency divider which scales down the crystal frequency to the desired carrier frequency in the band of 50-500 KHz. The carrier voltage for modulation (IF) is similarly obtained after division of crystal frequency 6.144 MHz. The pilot channel frequency 2580 - 30 Hz is arranged above the speech band which is provided for volume control in the receiver. The pilot frequency is transmitted during the rest condition and the other is keyed during dialing. Frequency shifts during dialing do not affect volume control operation. The PLC terminal provide on the AF side 4-wire input/output for connection to electronic exchange EPAX. The frequency allocation scheme is shown in fig.

2.6)

Frequency Allocation in the Grid System:

All EHV sub-stations and power stations are connected in the form of grid or mesh. Hence the same set of TX/ Rx frequencies can not be repeated all over the grid. Usually not less than two to three clear sections have to be allowed before the same set of frequencies can be assigned to a line in spite of the usual wave traps being provided for each line at both ends. This is partly because of the inductive and capacitive coupling between the conductors lying parallel to the conductor coupled and partly because of the inadequate blocking of the HF signals by the standard wave traps. A carrier frequency cannot therefore be used for a second line unless the signal strength of the first carrier is well below that of the general noise level at the second point. The allocation of carrier frequencies for new lines erected in a large power system can be a complicated affair. The manufacturer of the PLC equipment has to collaborate closely to the authority.

2.7)

Interference of the PLCC System with other users and vice-versa:-

Electro-magnetic fields emanating out of a PLCC system may cause interference w i t h Other users like P&T. AIR, Railways, C i v i l aviation operating in the same frequency bands. The interference with air will be more pronounced in the areas in the v i c i n i t y o f P L C C C c i r c u i t s where the received broadcasting signal strength is weak. Strong signals at other users within carrier frequency bands will affect the PLCC network if it is nearby to such users.

2.8) Guidelines for Providing Separate Earthing System for PLC Room a) Provide 3 meter long earthing electrode at a distance of about 3.5 meters from
each other outside the PLC room. The number of electrodes a minimum of 5.

b) The pits of the earth electrodes should be filled in preferably with coal and salt. c) All the earthing electrodes should be painted with low resistance metal paint to
avoid rusting. d) Ail the earthing electrodes should be inter-connected with a copper strip. 1.5 to 2 meters and at a depth of 0.5 meters. f) Arrangement to keep the earth pits always wet should he provided. e) A copper strip should be laid parallel to the earth electrodes at a distance of say

Notes:

Earth to all PLCC' including telemetry etc. equipment should be extended only from PLC earthing system .

In no case the switchyard earthing and PLCC earthling should be Connected. Even the 48V battery charger shall be connected to the PLCC earthing system. The screen of 150 ohms balanced HF cable in the switchyard should be kept Floating and the end at PLCC room should be connected to PLCC earth.

For

earthing

the

PLCC,

telemetry

equipment

cabinets

they

should be interconnected in groups using a copper strip connected to the PLCC earth System.

3) PLCC EQUIPMENT BPL 65-SERIES

3.1) Functional Description Send Path:The speech signal with a nominal level o f - 16 dB enters system via the 65 VF HYB module. The output of the hybrid then is passed through 65 C O M R E L , 65 COMP and 65 REJK Module. The 65 COMREL and 65 COMP are optional modules. 65 VF HYBRID facilitates 2 wire to 4 wire operation. The output of the 65 DLPF is routed to 65 MOD for modulation. The 65 REJK enables the trip signal from protection coupler to have precedence over the other signals like speech, super imposed channel etc. The 65 MOD, Modular connects the input signal to the IF range i.e. to 20 to 24 KHz. The 65 MOD channel filter which is a part of the 65 MOD eliminates the upper side band and the lower side band is taken to 65 UP CONV, UP Converter, w h i c h translate the entring frequency band lo the carrier frequency range which is within 30 - 500 KHz. The group channel filter which is a part of 65 UP CONV, allows the required side band to pass to the next stage. The HF signals from 65 UP CONV is fed to the 65 HF PRE AMP-II, Pre Amplifier which raises the level to the requisite input level of 65 IA, Power Amplifier. The power amplifier raises the signal level to the required value. Line filter, 65 LF, the required frequencies 65 HF HYB, HF- Hybrid section enables continuous channel operation of the transmitter and receiver. The 65 FS SIG in the terminal generates the p il ot frequency for continuous supervision of the system. Frequency s h i f t keying is employed to shift pi l ot lo dial.

Normally a frequency of 3570/2550 Hz is transmitted as pilot signal and is shifted to 3630/2610 Hz during d i a l i n g .

Receive Path :
The HF signals arriving from the distant end PLC terminal are fed -to the Receiver Section through the Hybrid Section to the 65 DN CONV, Down Converter module. The signals are filtered through the Group Channel filter mounted on the module. The output of DN CONV is passed on to the 65 DF, MOD which in turn translate the IF frequency to composite AF band. The various constituents of the composite audio band i.e. speech, data and super imposed channels are separated out. The 65 DLPF filters out the speech band. Signaling channel (Pilot/dial channel) is separated out by the receive filter in 65 FS SIG. If the pilot signal is lost, relay contact of K201 in 65 FS SIG will extend earth to relay KE in 65 REJK, Relay Jack Telephone module. Operation of relay KE disconnects the speech and other super imposed channels. Similarly KE relay contact removes earth from the d i a l i n g relay K1 in 65 FS SIG thus effecting dial blocking during pilot failure condition. Contacts of relay K1 can be suitably wired for operating switching equipments. The 65 FS SIG module also gives a DC signal where amplitude is proportional to the input to the receiver section. This voltage is extended to the respective Demodulator, 65 DEM0D, for A.G.C. operation. Signal is fed to the photo coupler in 65 DEMOD which in turn controls the gain of VF section, thus li mi ti n g the variation in VF level to +/-1dB for a v a r i a t i o n of +/- 26 dB in HF receive level.

3.2) TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Coupling device specifications:1. 650FMU Operating Band width Composite loss Return loss Input Impedance (Equipment side) 800-500KIIz for CC 4400pF/6600pf 2 d 13 12 dB 75 /125/150 Ohms

Output Impedance (Line side) Peak Envelope Power

600 Ohms phase to phase

650 W

I s o l a t i o n between primary & secondary:- 5 KV rms

Impulse withstand level

10 KV peak

II.

Drainage Coil: Rated inductance Continuous current rating Short time current rating 40mH 1A 50A for 0.2Sec

III

Earth Switch : Insulation withstand voltage Rated Current 10 KVA AC 400A

BPL PLCC CABINET

IV)

Lighting Arrester: Rated voltage 0.8KV >1.2KV

Power Frequency spark over Voltage V) 75 Ohm H.F. Cable Characteristic Impedance Tolerance for characteristic impedance VI) PLC Terminal a)lHC495 -1974

75 Ohm +/-10%

Commended value Tor characteristic input and output quantities of signals. Planning SSB PLC system Characteristic values of inputs and outputs of SSB PI .C terminals Manual for Planning of SSB PLC systems. PLC system planning Methods of tests for SSB PLC terminals.

b)IEC 653-1980 c) IS 9482- 1980 d) IS 9528- 1980 Fart I e) IS 9528-1980 Part II f) IS 10706- 1983

Recommendations: a)IEC688-l -1980 b)IKC 255-20-1984 c)IHC Draft 57-1985 h) CCITT i) Indian Electricity Rules j) CIGRE k) IEEE (USA)

d)Il-:C Draft 57-1983 e)IEC Draft 85-1984 f) IS 5561 -1970 g) IS 1554 Part 1-1976

4) PLCC EQUIPMENT PUNCOM 9500

4.1) GENERAL DESCRIPTION

System Block Diagram showing various modules is shown in Fig 4.1. The VF transmit section includes input circuits for different signals to be transmitted. This includes speech, signaling and pilot signal generation circuit for signaling and AGC purposes. On receive side the VF section has compatible output circuits for separating out different signals from the combined receive VF band. VF interface provides various speech interfaces of 2-Wire line, 4-Wire Express circuit, 2-Wire/4-Wire E&M PABX Junction circuits, Direct Subscriber (Telephone) Exchange Line and Service Telephone The output of the VF Interface unit is fed to the Channel modem unit, which comprises of VF, IF & HF sections for both transmit and receive sides. The IF carrier of 4.896 MHz is generated in the terminal by a phase locked loop crystal oscillator which converts VF transmit signal to a fixed intermediate frequency band of 4KHz. Lower side band is filtered out using a sharp cut off crystal band pass filter while the upper side band is fed to the second modulator for translation to the required HF band. The carrier of this modulator is the output of VCO synthesized oscillator which can be programmed as per the output HF in the range of 32 KHz to 508 KHz with the help of 10-position DIP switches. In the receive section, a VCO generates the required carrier using PLL principle. After demodulation the resulting lower band is filtered out using a crystal band pass filter while the upper band is demodulated to VF using 4.896 MHz as the fixed carrier. Pilot frequency is used for both AGC and supervision of the line. AGC is built in the system to regulate the VF output for variations in the HF level. The HF line section on transmit side has a Power Amplifier to provide high power of transmission at terminal output followed by HF hybrid for interfacing to 2-Wire HighVoltage line side. This section also includes programmable filters on the transmit side to suppress the harmonics to very low levels and to allow parallel connection of other PLCC terminals on the same power line.

Fig. 4.1 System block diagram 4.2) SYSTEM FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION

The system functional diagram in Fig.4.2 shows the basic blocks of PUNCOM PLCC system. The termination panel houses the user l/F that includes VFT data, service telephone user controls etc.

All the speech signals are fed to the VF interface unit. This includes service telephone. The unit converts all the speech into 4 wire for further processing which is fed to the channel modem unit along with 'M' lead signal. This voice band signal is converted to a 4 KHz band in 32-508KHz. Channel Modem Unit has the functional blocks for filtering and modulation. VF is converted to H F in two stages of modulation. This signal after conversion is fed to the Power Amplifier, filtered and passed to HF Hybrid for transmission

For Receive operation, HF signal is available at tag block from where it is fed to channel modem through HF hybrid unit. This signal is demodulated in two steps and passed to the VF interface unit. Alarms from individual cards are extended to the supervisory unit to be displayed on the LCD. These alarms indicate the presence/absence of various cards; muting condition; S/N alarm etc. Loop back signals for local and remote loop back are generated in the supervisory unit.

VFT data is converted to serial form in the data interface unit and is fed to the Channel Modem unit. All the data are summed in channel modem.

Fig. 4.2 Functional block diagram 4.3) SUB-UNIT DESCRIPTION

The PLCC terminal PFFFL-9500 consists of three sub racks i) ii) iii) Main sub-rack HF Hybrid sub-rack Alarm and Termination panel

4.3.1

Main Sub rack

It consists of the following units for a single channel system VF Interface unit Channel Modem unit Power Amplifier unit Supervisory unit Power Supply unit Main Motherboard Data Interface unit (Superimposed Data Multiplexer/De-Multiplexer plus Transit Band-pass Filter) In order to equip the system for twin channel operation, one unit each of VF Interface, data interface and Channel Modem is added in the main subrack in the slots provided for the purpose. 4.3.11) VF Interface Unit General

VF Interface unit provides interface between carrier communication equipment and 2-Wire/4-Wire E&M PABX junctions, 2-Wire HOT LINE, 4-Wire EXPRESS circuits, REMOTE SUBSCRIBER TELEPHONE, DIRECT EXCHANGE LINE (DEL), Electronic four wire group selector , etc

In addition, it provides a Service Telephone interface for Engineering Order-wire meant for maintenance purposes, the hybrid control for permanent 4-Wire Express/4-Wire, tandem call working and compander control. A buzzer has been built-in to indicate Service call reception and to provide -48V for a remote 4-Wire telephone set buzzer.

The unit has been provided with break/monitoring plugs and LED indicators on front panel. There is also the provision for Loop tests for maintenance and repair purposes Options/features with Functional details 2W/2W hotline As shown in Fig. 4.3 2W/2W hotline inputs are subjected to 4 Wire conversions through VF hybrid. 2W Tx path is normally through but can be changed over to 4W through a relay, which is normally de-energized The attenuator in line can be selected to provide required levels for 2W and 4W tone

For 2W hotline, on lifting the handset, the loop is closed It is detected and ground potential is extended to M-lead. This makes the path through for2Wsubscriber side

Fig. 3.3 Functional Block diagram of VF interface unit 4WE& M/4W Express For 4W E and M/4W express telephone, 2W hybrid circuit is disabled and 4W/4W express speech IN and OUT is respectively routed to VF Tx and VF RCV of Channel Modem Unit through attenuators AT1 and AT2.

Engineering OAV For Engineering O/W service call, attendant inserts the jack plug of handset to the corresponding socket. JACK TEL LED glows to indicate that Jack telephone is inserted. A 1Khz oscillator is provided to produce a tone, whenever call switch is pressed, which is transmitted through the 4W transmit path to the remote terminal. The tone is detected by the detector circuit, which operates the buzzer. Ring back tone is fed back to the calling side by the RBT generator. Inserting the jack telephone at the called end makes the call through.

FXO / FXS Circuit FXO circuit is implemented for Direct-to-Exchange Line (DEL) operation. This circuit can be directly terminated to 2W exchange line and provides the function of Ring detect and battery feed. FXS circuit is implemented for interface to the subscriber telephone. It provides the features of Loop detect and ring feed

Control Signals (extended on termination panel)

Hybrid Control This is used to select or remove the Hybrid on the Speech port. A ground on this signal sets the interface in 4W mode and an open in 2W mode. This signal should only be used for E & M or 4W Express mode and should be left open for Hotline and Remote Subscriber modes. Tandem Control

During transit control, ground is extended by the EPABX on Tandem Control input which sets the interface for 4W operation. Additionally, it removes the compander so that only one pair of companders is active in the link.

4WExpress Control/Express Buzzer When the VF interface is set for 4W Express Subscriber mode, this control input acts as a 'CALL' command. On the Express phone, Ground Is extended on the line for the duration the Call' switch is pressed. As a response to this, -48V is extended on the Express Buzzer at the remote side. This causes the activation of Buzzer at the remote station.

4.3 .12)
General

Channel Modem Unit

Channel Modern translates VF to HF in the range of 32-508 KHz. It houses its own Pilot, Signaling circuit, Compander and AGC circuitry. Functional blocks for filtering, modulation and translation of voice frequency signals into Single Side Band Suppressed Carrier (AM-SSB-SC) base band signals are provided in this card as its integral unit. Channel modem employs two stages of modulation for conversion of VF signals to HF signal of 4 KHz bandwidth in 32 to 508KHz. Digital frequency synthesizer is employed for generation of programmable carrier frequencies to translate the VF band to and from HF band. Because of 2-Wire working on HF side, transmit and receive carriers are kept different. Carrier frequencies are synchronised with a highly stable TCXO in the supervisory unit for better frequency stability of the system Out of band signaling tone of 3825 Hz at -14dBmO level is used for dialing and status purposes, while a continues tone of 2550/3923 Hz at -14dBmO is employed as pilot for link supervision and AGC. Same pilot is used as a guard signal for protection coupler. The Pilot Frequency can be selected by changing a daughter card, which is provided separately for two Pilot frequencies. During dialing, signaling frequency is interrupted.

The voice upper cut-off frequency can be selected by replacement of solderabie Low Pass filter module in both transmit and receive paths. A total of four such modules are available i.e., for voice upper cut-off at 2.0Khz, 2.4Khz and 2.6Khz and 3.4Khz (full speech band). The Data Interface unit should also be replaced accordingly to match the available superimposed data channel bandwidths by changing pin postion.

Functional details

Transmit Side VF signals are passed through a circuit consisting of gain control, level adjustment and VF level limiting. To attenuate the low frequency signals and equalise the transit frequency response near 300Hz, a high pass filter is provided. Compressor is used to improve the signal to noise ratio for speech communication. Output of the compressor is fed to the summer" through LPF, which attenuates VF signals above 2/2.4/2.6/3.4KHZ. The summer mixes the superimposed data, compressed speech and 3825Hz signalling tone, and the output of this is fed to the first transmit balanced modulator, hence converting it to IF of 4896 KHz. A crystal filter of 4896-4900 KHz pass band is used to pass the upper side band. Output of this band pass filter is fed to the second transmit modulator. The output of the second transmit Carrier Generator (oscillator) is programmable in the range of 4392 KHz - 5100 KHz, thereby the HF (second oscillator - IF) frequency can be programmed in the range of 32-508 KHz. The upper side bands are undesired and are attenuated using a single pole low pass filter before applying the HF signal to the HF amplifier. Output of this HF amplifier is open collector and drives an external 75ohm combining resistor in the shelf connector board. Receive band limited HF spectrum containing a maximum of 2 channels from HF Hybrid card appears directly at Channel Modem and is applied to the receive HF amplifier This circuit provides gain for the incoming signals and drives the first receive demodulator. Crystal bandpass filter rejects all other frequencies except the desired band of 4896 - 4900 KHz. Output of the crystal band pass filter goes to the IF amplifier which has built-in AGC circuitry. Undesired upper side band is removed. Amplified VF signal is fed to the low pass filter through expander circuit. A low pass filter is used to prevent superimposed data, pilot and signalling tones from appearing

at the VF receive side. A notch filter of 3923KHz is used to separate the pilot from the combined VF receive. The receive Pilot Frequency is selected by the replacement of solderable Pilot Notch filter module. Notch filters for 3923Hz and 2550Hz are available.

Carrier Frequency Generation Carrier generators serve as local oscillators for modulation. First carrier generator is used for the first Transmit modulator and second receives demodulator. Second programmable carrier generator is used for the second Transmit modulator and first receive demodulator. Signaling Section This section converts the dialing on M-lead into 3825Hz tone keyed on and off. The ground on M-lead leads to absence of 3825Hz tone. On the receive side, a 3825Hz notch filter filters out the signaling tone. Rectification of this tone gives the dc level corresponding to the presence or absence of signaling tone. This dc level is used to detect keyed on and off tone on the E-lead Control signals (extended on Termination Panel) Data in/Out A separate port has been provided for the full band data channel. When selected in the Modem Unit through straps, the speech path from VE t/f is disabled and this port is connected. The dBr setting for this port is -10dB. PC-Control In/Out This port is provided for Tele-protection signal. Normally a loop is provided between these two signals. When the ioop is removed, speech, data, pilot and signalling channels are cut and full power is allocated to PC IN (trip signal) sent by external Protection Coupler Equipment. PC IN The trip signal (in the form of tones) is provided by the External Protection Coupler Equipment on this input port. These signals are sent on HF line at full power when the loop is removed from across PC-Control-IN/OUT PC OUT The full speech band demodulated by the Channel Modem Unit is fed to this port for sending to the External Protection Coupler Equipment.

4.3.13)
General

Power Amplifier Unit

A detailed drawing showing the functional operation of the Power Amplifier Unit Interface Unit is provided as Fig.4.4. Power amplifier is used to amplify RF output from modem before it is transmitted to the line. The amplifier PAMP4 and PAMP8 are designed to deliver an output of 20W/40W and 80W PEP respectively. Amplifier can be divided in three stages. Pre Amplifier stage; Power Amplifier stage and the Control section.

Functional Description Pre Amplifier stage This stage is used to drive the power amplifier stage. It has a selectable gain This section is further divided into two IC based stages that operate on +12V The output of this stage is coupled to the Power Amplifier stage through a coupling transformer that besides providing a gain of 3dB offers DC isolation between the pre-ampiifier stage and the power amplifier stage.

Power Amplifier stage This stage is used to raise the levels of speech and other signals to the required values for transmission over the line. Power amplifier operates over a frequency range of 32-508KHz. This section is further divided into two stages viz., differential amplifier stage and the push pull power stage. The output of the push pull power stage is coupled to the output transformer with the input impedance of 5.6 Q and output impedance of 75 C1.

Control stage

This stage consists of the following sections: Delay Circuitry: It connects the output of the push pull power stage to the output transformer after a delay of approximately 2sec once the system is switched on. This enables the Power Amplifier to stabilize before it is connected to the inductive load.

3.3.14) Data Interface Unit (Superimposed Data Muitiplexer/DeMuitiplexer plus Transit Band- pass Filter)
General A detailed drawing showing the functional operation of the Data Interface Unit is provided as Fig.3.11. The unit comprises of Superimposed Data Multiplexer & DeMultiplexer and Transit Band-Pass filter. The unit is provided with loop back facility for remote end testing on generation of remote loop back command from the supervisory unit. Data interface card interfaces with the modem on 4W interface. The card can provide upto three multiplexed and three demultiplexed VF channels for data communication. Functional details

Transformers in the data path provide for isolation and impedance matching. The data is combined by the combiner and transferred to channel modem unit as SID-TX (Trans superimposed data). Superimposed receive data (SID-RCV) from channel modem is passed through a low pass filter of 3720Hz. This signal is then fed to the HPF, which is dependent upon the unit option used These two filter units form a transit band-pass filter {TBF). This filtering limits the superimposed data to a band of 22807268072880-3720Hz, which is then fed to decombiner. These data channels are accessible to the user. Three options of Data Interface Unit are available for TBF pass-bands of 2280-3720Hz,26803720Hz and 2880-3720Hz to match 2.0/2.4/2 6Khz upper cut-off frequency option of Channel modem unit. The part nos are provided in the configuration guide In case more data channel need to be equipped, they can be implemented with the help of a separate Combiner/Decombiner Unit which can provide 5 data ports when put on any of the existing data channels The inputs and outputs of this unit are transformer-coupled. This unit occupies 1U space and may be equipped m any of the tU slots. Further these units may be cascaded to increase the number of data channels available. On transmit side, individual channel levels can be adjusted.

3.3 .15)

Supervisory Unit Genera!

The supervisory unit is provided to control and monitor local and remote PLCC terminals. It monitors all the alarms generated in the system and displays the status of the alarms on the LCD. The local loop and the remote loop test commands can be generated from the supervisory unit. Supervisory also displays the minor and major alarms in case of system fault. A highly stable TCXO is also provided in this card to synchronies various oscillators in the system. Two test tone generators of 800 Hz and 153 KHz are provided for testing purposes.

Functional details Input ports Input ports are provided to monitor the system status and alarms

One input port is reserved for the system ID and one for configuring the system. Output ports Output ports are provided for issuing the loopback commands for any of the two channels or for indicating various alarm conditions. ADC section ADC section converts the various analog signals e.g. AGC level output power level and power supply voltages in the digital form to be displayed on the LCD DTMF Transceiver section This section issues the command for remote loop and also detects the remote loop back command at the remote end. RS 485/RS 422 Port The serial port can be configured either by software or hardware for RS422 or RS485 operation. In case of RS422 operation, the system can be configured as master or slave. This port can be used to patch the supervisory data from two or more PLCC Terminals at a place. This port interfaces with the microcontroller through an external DUART. RS 232 Port This is provided to monitor the status of the equipment at Local or Remote ends. This port may also be used to download the new version of the software

Test tones 153 KHz tone A test tone of 153 KHz is extended on front plate of the Supervisory Unit and this may be fed to the Power Amplifier Unit through patch cord to carry out the functional checks of Power Amplifier Unit. Channel modem is jacked out whenever this test tone is fed to the power amplifier unit. This is a square wave and provides an output rich in harmonics Injection of this test tone should result in glowing of O/P Mon LED on Power Amplifier front panel 800 Hz tone for 2W/4W

A test tone of 800Hz (sinusoidal) is extended on the front panel of the Supervisory Unit on RTG socket. This is transformer coupled and may be fed to VF Port in foopback mode or otherwise through RTG cable The results may accordingly be noted on the 4W/2W ports (in Ioopback mode) or HF port. When operated in 2W mode, the setting in the VF interface unit should correspond to 2W.

Alarm/supervisory unit

SUPERVISORY INDICATION ON PLCC EQUIPMENT

3 3. 16)

Power Supply Unit

Power Supply Unit is a SMPS card, which converts -48VDC input (-40VDC to -60VDC range) to 36V (+50V) for power amplifier and +/- 12V & 5V for operation of other cards of PLCC. Power Supply unit works in fly back conversion mode. It has two pulse width modulator (current mode) chips IC3842. One chip is used for +36V & -36V (+50V and -50V) and the other chip for + 12V, -12V &5V.

Input circuitry consisting of EMI/RFI filter offers common mode rejection and provides attenuation at frequencies above 40KHz. Output of filter drives power switching transformer. Switching pulses of controlled duty cycle drive the power MOSFET i e. energy is forwarded through the primary winding by switching at frequency of 40KHz. Control circuit consists of PWM chip 3842. It varies the duty cycle i e. switching of the power MOSFET according to the output voltage +36V. if the output voltage tries to increase, PWM chip senses the voltage through optocoupler and decreases the duty cycle thereby decreasing the voltage and vice-versa (i.e. If output voltage tries to decrease). Transformer stores energy during on period and pumps energy in the secondary during off period. Secondary voltages are rectified by diode/capacitor combination and then filtered through on an additional L-C filter combination The same circuit applies for + 12 & + 5V The feedback is sensed through -12V output and +12V is regulated with the help of low drop out regulator & +5V is regulated with the help of fixed regulator. -48V after filtering through EMI/RFI filter is given for ringer circuit The various protections output over voltage, output short-circuit output under voltage Indication have been incorporated in the power supply

3.3.17)

Main Motherboard

All the interconnections of signals on various cards are achieved by means of PCB mounted on the shelf back. All the connections to the Termination Panel from the motherboard are made by means of 2 x 7 connectorised cables, interconnections between various subracks are through BNC and Molex connectorised cables. Standard Euro connectors are used for firm insertion of cards. To avoid insertion of card in wrong slot, interlocking is provided on the motherboard as well as on critical cards. This is achieved by varying the positions of the connectors on these cards and on the corresponding slots on the motherboard.

4.3.2)

HF Hybrid Sub rack

This sub rack consists of the following units: HF Filter module

HF Hybrid unit LCD with Keypad HF Hybrid motherboard

HF Filter Module The purpose of HF filter is

To provide high impedance to line for out-band section, allowing parallel connection of other PLCC terminals To reduce inter-modulation products and harmonics produced by power amplifier.

To protect amplifier's output from the disturbances which may occur because of Power system switching, lighting etc

The filter is designed for programmability on site the filter can be programmed for single/twin channels and for any frequency band within 32 to 508 KHz (the frequency band allocated for PLCC application by WPC). The filter is made of two identical modules consisting of a coil and a set of capacitors. Both modules are fixed in a single box to provide easy tenability of the filter. HF Hybrid Unit Detailed functional diagram of HF Hybrid Unit is shown in Fig.3,14. The purpose of HF hybrid unit is to provide isolation between transmitter and receiver. The level of isolation depends upon accuracy of line impedance. The hybrid section consisting of two transformers isolates transmit and receive sections. The output of hybrid is connected to the HF line. The hybrid output can be connected to line or in-built dummy load for calibration purpose. Receive output from hybrid is filtered by low pass filter for filtering the unwanted outband signals The filtered signal is fed to the modem after proper level attenuation, which is field selectable.

LCD (with Keypad)

The LCD provides a simple and easy user interface The normal status of the system will be automatically displayed on the LCD. Any alarm condition or test mode condition is also displayed.

LCD display on PLCC unit for monitoring

User can monitor the status of the local station by entering the command through the keypads. Various system parameters like power supply voltages are also displayed on the LCD.

HF Hybrid motherboard The signals from the HF hybrid unit are extended to the motherboard for further distribution. The HF transmit signal is brought on to a terminal block for connecting it

to the HF cable. The HF receive signal is extended to the main motherboard through a BNC cable. Terminals are also provided on the terminal block for connecting external dummy load.

Fig. 4.6 Functional Block Diagram of HF Hybrid unit

4.3.3)

Alarm_and_Termination panel

All the VF, Data and control signals accessible to the user are provided on the termination connector blocks mounted on the Termination Panel. It also displays Power, major alarm, minor alarm and houses input power MCB and HF break plugs (for isolating the system from the HF line during testing).

PUNCOM PLCC CABINET

APPLICATIONS OF PLCC SYSTEM

5.1) SCADA SYSTEMS FOR POWER DISTRIBUTION: AN OVERVIEW

The basic job of a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system is to supervise the working of its parent process, i.e. Power System Distribution Network, and to provide to the operator, the system information in a form which is conducive to easy understanding of the state of the process. Operator has the facility to control the working of the system and also the outputs of the process. Often, SCADA application to Power Distribution networks is termed as Load Dispatch' System (LD) since the major application is to monitor and control the flow of energy in the branches of the network

5.1 Hardware
There is a main server computer which has the basic software of the SCADA system. The main job of this system is to acquire the process data, and present it to the operator in suitable formats to enable him to take decisions as well as recognize any mishap. Should the operator decide so, he may issue appropriate commands. The operator works via the HMI (Human Machine Interface). There could be at least one HMI acting as a client to the server. For very small application, the HMI may be operative on the main-server. The input data may be delivered to the server via various devices. The most common such a device is the Remote Terminal Unit (RTU). But other devices such as a frontend computer connected via a serial link or over a bus, a PLC based automation system, etc can be interfaced.

Front-end Computer
In the case of large and geographically wide installations, a large number of RTU's maybe deployed. In some other cases, there may be RTUs with differing communication protocol. Yet another installation may require positioning of some RTUs and some PLC-based units. In such cases, a direct connection of such devices directly to the SCADA server may lead to the server spending most of its time on Communication alone. The other SCADA functions (especially the Data Base function) would get less than required time. This is not a desirable status. Hence, the advent of Front-end processor. The basic job of the front-end processor is to delink the communication process from the

rest of the SCADA functions. The front-end processors deal with the external devices, checking the validity of information, fulfilling the requirement of one or more communication protocols. Only the raw data is transferred to the main server, at high speed. So the server has time to spend on other functions. The connectivity between the server and the Front-end has to provide high-speed transmission, without the loss of information This could be achieved over a high speed, dedicated serial link or a high speed LAN The use of Fiber optic cable can practically eliminate errors of transmission. In normal case, the Front-end would be physically placed near the server. But, if the logic so requires, the 'Front-end could be located at some distance. The connectivity must always be dedicated. In cases of a very large network, there might be a requirement of multiple Frontends. The server allows this.

RTU
In the following description, we have considered a logical link between the RTU and the main server. In the case, a Front-end processor is included, the word main server' or 'server' can be replaced with the 'Front-end' without any change in the logic of the description. Only, by deploying a Front-end, we can service a much larger number of RTUs than would be the case of direct connection to the server. The RTU (Remote Terminal Unit) acquires the process related data sitting at a location away from the server locations. It has input / output cards for type of data connected. It also has a link to the servers. The link could be: Direct connection

The RTU is connected to the main server by a directly connected serial cable The transmission speed would be dependent on the type of hardware. Speeds up to 115 kBauds may be possible Bus based connection

Both RTU and the server sit on an Ethernet LAN. The data transfer takes place as for all other communication over the bus. Hence the bus bandwidth becomes the upper limit. In general the bus would be shared with other devices. Hence the upper limit on the transfer speed is dependent on the topology and the number of nodes. Telephone link (Leased/ Dial up) over Modem

Some times if the distance between central station & the RTU is too large. Modem is used to convert the bits into voice frequency signals, which can be transmitted over the telephone link The dialed connection may be used if the data transfer takes place infrequently If the data transmission is more regular, it makes sense to take a leased line This is same as a normal telephone line, only it is always connected, hence no dialing is needed. While speeds close to 64KBauds can be achieved, in normal case 9.6 K Bauds is used.

Power Line Carrier Communication (PLCC)

Probably the most used mode of connection. A few High frequency carriers are used to carry the data (and voice) over the existing transmission lines. The carrier used is 100 kHz or above. Each logical channel is equal to a telephone channel. For data transmission, the logical channel is divided in to smaller bandwidth channels. The usual channels used are in the range of (in Bauds) 1200, 600, 300. etc. It is usual to use the remaining bandwidth for voice communication between substations (e.g. as Hotline) VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) Requires two terminations, one at each end. There are two types of VSAT links, single hop (DAMA) and two hop (TDMA). The single hop type transfers information directly from the originator to the receiver. In the case of double hop, all the information up linked first goes to the vender's computer, which retransmits it to the destination station. In the second case, the transmission time is just double of the time taken in case of single hop. In general, the satellite is parked in Geo-stationary orbit. Microwave/ Radio link The logical link formed this way is generally, point to point. In case of Radio Link, it is possible to create a one-to-many and/or many-to-one configuration. Such a link could be used to create a polling configuration. The problem is that Radio wave is subject to fading and Microwave travels only in straight line. Hence these are best used within a short distance. For Microwave, we can extend the distance by using repeaters. But it is a costly solution. Considering the over-crowding in the Radio/ Microwave spectrum, its use might pose more problems than it solves. Wide Area Network

This is a good use of a known mature technology. The bottleneck is the low bandwidth available and sharing of that bandwidth with others. The information collected by the RTU could be any type processed by the software The major attribute of an RTU is its communication protocol. This protocol is based on logical serial connectivity The information with central station is exchanged in blocks Each block has an address value which defines its content. Further the block has error correction information and an 'order-of-blocks' control mechanism The flow of information between the RTU and the central station could be on 'cyclic" basis or on 'Exception' basis or on 'polling' basis It is 'cyclic' transmission, if the data blocks are sent out in a round-robin way. That is every data block is repeated after a predictable time period. Data transmission is said to be on 'exception' basis when the RTU keeps that extra check on the incoming data to ascertain if the data has undergone a change in status. If yes, the block containing that data is transmitted Logically, in a stable system, very little data would change in a short span of tune Hence, the transmission takes place at random Total transmission is highly reduced. In case of 'polling' method, the receiver decides when the data should come .In this ease It is normal to tie every transmitter to the same link (like a bus). Whichever transmitter has data to send, puts up a flag for the purpose. The receiver passes around 'permission to send. Which ever transmitter has been allowed by the receiver sends out the data on the common link. Others wait for their turn. !n this case the common link is highly simplified; being a serial bus, but the total transmission capacity is greatly reduced. In some RTU families, additional members may be offered to provide further flexibility in connectivity. For Example, there might be a version which acts like a multiplexer. It would take multiple low-speed channels from RTUs as input and output a single higher speed channel towards the main server There could also be some special purpose units interfacing locally to a non-family device(s) e.g PLC units, while converting the output side to the RTU communication protocol. 5.2) Transducers & Sensors The sensors convert the analog process information to a proportionate electrical value, e g pressure value may be converted to equivalent voltage. As an example,

the Dam Gate opening can be acquired by adding a string to the gate in such a way that the wire turns a pulley, which is connected to rheostat whose resistance changes. If we connect the rheostat to a power source-, the resulting voltage drops proportionate to the resistance of the relevant side of the rheostat. This voltage would be fed to a transducer, which would convert the proportionate voltage signal to a proportionate current signal The transducer shall be so adjusted that the current output remains in the standard range of 1 to 20mA. In this example, the sensor and the transducer shall be adjusted so that a closed Gate will lead to a 4mA signal, whereas a fully open gate would lead to 20 mA output. There are other standard ranges in use .For example 0-10 Volts. -10 to +10 Volts, etc. As stated in the example, the Transducers convert the proportionate electrical signal to a standard range and scale. The output of transducer is connected to the RTU's analog input card where it gets convened to a coded set of bits. This set is sent to the software in the servers for SCADA processing.

GLOASSRY

Access protocol: A set of rules followed by a LAN member to avoid message collision, when sending over a shared media (e.g. coaxial cable LAN). Some call it the Media Access Control protocol (MAC), such as CSMA or Token passing. A/D converter: A device to convert analog signal to digital bit sequence.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP): A protocol to map IP addresses to Ethernet addresses. TCP/IP requires ARP for use with Ethernet. Alphanumeric: A combination of alphabetic letters and numerals. It is differentiated from graphic symbols. Generally in reference to input or output of a computer. API (Application Programme Interface): A set of standard (to a computer or a software vender) calls and data structures for embedding certain services which normally are not a part of the application programme. Often the API is used to hide special functions or complexities or even intellectual property from the application programmer. In case of network services, the API provides a simple means to make use of the network protocol and the repeated transfers to and from the presentation layer downward.

Application Layer: The highest layer in the ISO/OSI reference model. The user programmes run at this level. The programmers on this level deal with external manipulation of the useful data. The details of networking are not available to him. ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange): A standard to allow binary representation of Alphanumeric characters. The standard set includes many control codes as well. This is the most common standard set. However, there are many others. The source and the destination must be aware of the standard used by the other.

Asynchronous: A mode of transmission of information on a communication media, which accounts for possible gaps or delays between the end of one set and the start of the next. The provision of special start and stop characters take care of this issue.

Attenuation: The strength of a signal, when transmitted over a media,

undergoes a reduction, which is normally in proportion to the distance. This reduction is termed as attenuation.

Bandwidth: It is the range of frequencies, which the device or the media, allows to pass through with nil or negligible attenuation. Some people refer to the rate of information flow also as bandwidth.

Base band: A network which works on DC voltages rather than modulated radio waves. Baud: It is defined as the inverse of the time duration of the shortest element of the signal. BCD: A binary code to represent numeric digits. Bit: It is the smallest piece of information in a message. It can only take a value from ZERO & ONE (or TRUE & FALSE, or OPEN & CLOSE, etc.) Block A group of characters having a common basis Bps. Bits per Second Bridge A device to conned two LANs with similar or dis-similar protocols. Broadband" Opposite of base band. It is an network that transmits signals as modulated radio waves.

Broadcast is to transmit a message to all the stations in the range of the network. At times broadcast may be to a defined group within the network Bus Topology. A network configuration where all the devices are connected to the same cable and all receive a message broadcast by any member

Byte- An ordered group of 8 bits. Usually the group of 8 bits is taken together for interpretation.

Carrier Signal; The basic radio frequency which is later modified by way of modulation in the case of Broadband signals. CCITT It is the- abbreviation of the French equivalent of the international body 'International Committee for Consultation on Telegraph & Telephone CCS7 A network signaling standard for out of band signaling. It has additional control signal; for setting up or closing a connection, for sending Calling Line Identification (CLI) and other controls for special tasks

Channel. A passage to carry information between the source and thedestination

Circuit Switching. The normal method of connecting the called and the caller in telephone network The network on demand by the caller sets up a temporary channel between the two The channel remains available until one of them clears the line i e. hangs up.

Client/Server Computing; A software architecture scheme, whereby a common database resides on one or more servers, and client computers call up instance specific data for immediate use only This avoids multiple images of the database and the associate risk of un synchronized data.

Coaxial Cable, a type of cable where one of the conductors is shaped like a hollow cylinder with the other conductor being shaped like a straight wire or rod and positioned concentric with the cylinder The space between the conductors is filled with dielectric material The original Ethernet LAN was based on a coaxial cable.

Codec. Acronym for 'Coder Decoder It is a bidirectional device to convert analog signals into a digital bit-stream, and its reverse CPU (Central Processing Unit}- The brain of a computer This is part which actually reads the programme and carries out the instructions therein. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check)1 A derived value which is added to computer message The receiver derives the same value and checks it against the transmitted value. A discrepancy is signaled as error in the message.

Crosstalk. When many signals travel through the same media (through separate logical channels there is a chance of the neighboring channels spilling over each other. This is termed as 'crosstalk'.

CRT' a cathode Ray Tube. This is the technology used to manufacture most of the Video monitors. Current Loop; An electrical path where the presence or absence of any signal is related to the presence or absence of a current in the circuits The BS 232 standard interface is based on current loop Bps Bits per Second Bridge A device to connect two LANs with similar or dis-similar protocols. Broadband Opposite of base band It is a network that transmits signals as modulated radio waves

Broadcast, is to transmit a message to all the stations in the range of the network Attunes, broadcast may be to a defined group within the- network Bus Topology A network configuration where all the devices are connected to the same cable and all receive a message broadcast by any member

Byte. An ordered group of 8 bits. Usually the group of 8 bits is taken together for interpretation Carrier Signal. The basic radio frequency which is later modified by way of modulation, in the case of Broadband signals

CCITT- It is the abbreviation of the French equivalent of the international body 'International Committee for Consultation on Telegraph & Telephone.

Channel: A passage to carry information between the source and the destination

Circuit Switching The normal method o* connecting the called and the caller in telephone network The network, on demand by the caller, sets up a temporaiy channel between the two The channel remains available until one ot them clears the line i e. hangs up

Client/Server Computing. A software architecture scheme, whereby a

common database resides on one or more servers, and client computers call up instance specific data for immediate use only Tins avoids multiple images of the database and the associate risk of un synchronized data.

Coaxial Cable; a type of cable where one of the conductors is shaped like a hollow cylinder, with f he other conductor being shaped like a straight wire or rod and positioned concentric with the cylinder. The space between the conductors is filled with dielectric material The original Ethernet LAN was based on a coaxial cable.

Codec Acronym for 'Coder'' Decoder It is a bidirectional device to convert analog signals into a digital bit-stream and its reverse

CPU (Central Processing Unit). The brain of a computer. This is part which actually reads the programme and carries out the instructions, therein

CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check). A derived value which is added to computer message The receiver derives the same value and checks it against the transmitted value. A discrepancy is signaled as error in the message. Crosstalk: When many signals travel through the same media (through separate logical channels there is a chance of the neighboring channels spilling over each other. This is termed as 'crosstalk'. CRT- a cathode Ray Tube. This is the technology used to manufacture most of the Video monitors. Current Loop. An electrical path where the presence or absence of any signal is related to the presence or absence of a current in the circuits. The RS 232 standard interface is based on current loop.

D/A Converter1 A device which converts Digital information to the corresponding Analog signal stream. Usually it is a part of some more complex equipment

Data Compression" A method to reduce the transfer time or the storage size of a piece of data.

Data Packet. A block of data that is handled as a single unit for transmission over an X 25 packet network based WAN

DB-25- The designation of a standard plug and jack set in which there are 12 pins in one low and 13 pins in the other Demodulation; The process of recovering data from a modulated signal.

Dial-up Line A communication circuit which is set up only for the period of a call, and is initiated by 'dialing' the destination code. In cases where the time between iwo scans for data, is too wide as compared to the time the channel is in demand

Distortion- Any change in the transmitted signal. The change may be due to crosstalk, noise, delay attenuation, or otherwise.

Driver. A software module, which interfaces some hardware unit with the software application system.

Duplex: The capability of a communication circuit to receive and transmit at the same time In contrast, a half duplex circuit allows only one task at a time. i.e.

either sending or receiving, but is capable of both the tasks E1: A standard wideband channel used mainly in Europe and India It is equivalent to 32 standard digital channels of 64 kbps capacity each

EBCDIC' Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code This is an IBM supported standard which provides for representation of alphanumeric characters and some control signals as eight bit long digital signals

Ethernet: An electronic Bus System, based on a coaxial cable and the CSMA'CD protocol It is. presently the most popular bus system with the difference that the coaxial cable has long since been replaced by electronic systems. FDDI. Fiber Distributed Data Interface A LAN system based on Fiber Optic cable This is not to be confused with Ethernet LAN. where the copper cables have been replaced by Fiber-Optic Cable.

File Server: A computer whose only task is to manage the file based database system. The client system are free to request any information at any time, for their processing The common storage ensures error-free upkeep of the database and an end to the synchronization problem, which is common when multiple copies of the complete or partial database exist

Four-wire Circuit. A mode of transmission in which, two half-duplex circuits are cross connected to give a full duplex connectivity. Fractional T1/ E1 The individual 64kbps channels, which, when multiplexed would constitute. The TV E1 circuit Conversely, if an E1 ,T1 line is do-multiplexed, the individual channels are named as Fractional TV El.

Frame. A data packet on the circuit X 25 or SNA, or a LAN.

Frame Relay: A transmission protocol, which does not provide for high level of error protection, since the transmission is expected only within a short distance. It is a presumed that the error rate would be low. Frequency Converter. A device which receives the incoming signal on one frequency, and shifts the signal to a different frequency. A common application is at the Head-end of Cable TV system The satellite signal is received on a very high frequency Since TV sets can not use that frequency, a converter shifts the TV signal to a lower frequency, within the TV range

Frequency Division Multiplexing A mode of transmitting multiple low frequency signals in a correlated higher frequency band Using electronic circuit c\e\y low frequency signal is translated on to a higher frequency band, such that no two bands overlap The central frequency of the result is called the carrier frequency The resultant signal can be dealt with as a group, for the purpose of onward transmission At the receiving end. a reverse process is carried out. to recover individual low frequency bands for further processing.

Frequency-shift keying: A method of modulating digital signals. Since, a digital signal can only have one of two values, the modulation scheme chooses two frequency value from the output band Every time the input signal has the first value, it is translated as the first of the two output frequencies As the input signal changes to the other state. the output changes to the second chosen frequency. Hence the binary nature of the signal is preserved. This method is very common and is usually put to use in case of Modems.

FTP. (File Transfer Protocol) A protocol originating from Unix side for transfer of Data.' any other file based information set, from one machine to the other. This is usually a part of the TCP/IP suite. Apart from transfer of data, it enables a limited set of file management functions remotely.

Full Duplex: The ability of a channel to carry signals in both directions at the same time. Gateway: A unit to allow shared access from one Network entity to another, without any processing of the signal Half Duplex, in contrast to the 'Full Duplex". Half duplex nature of a channel denotes that it can carry a signal in both directions. However, at any given time, only one direction could be in use by the signal. Handshake: To control the flow of information over a channel, some exchange of control information, e.g. size of a frame, destination, etc . is necessary. This exchange is called as Handshake. HDLC (High-level Data Link Control). An ISO standard for a bit-oriented link-layer protocol Hz: A measure of frequency. Cycles per second. IEEE 802 A family of standards developed by IEEE, for physical and electrical connection;, in local area networks

Impedance' An electrical pi of jetty of any electrical or electronic item. It is a measure of the- resistance offered by the unit In an alternating electric current Interface. The boundary of an equipment where, logically, another equipment may be connected. Also, the definition of such a boundary Internet: The entire domain of interconnected computers, spread throughout the world. I he underlying protocol is TCP/IP based Every computer on the network has an address assigned to it. which may be used by other computers to access this computer's resources Most of the computers are configured as very high speed servers

IP" (Interne! Protocol) A standard software that keeps track of all the internet addresses it conies in touch with It also routes outgoing massages. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) A standard created to serve the modern communication network and help integrate voice, data and video services of the same network. A standard ISDN line provides for two 'B' channels of 64 Kbps each, and a 'D' channel of !G kbps ISDN networks implement 'out-of-band' signaling.

Leased Line A communication NUK network two stations, which is reserved for full time use of the leaser The charges to tie paid are a function of the end-to-end distance and the bandwidth of the channel Such a channel is commonly used for WAN

Local Area Network (LAN)' A (set of one or more)high speed link connecting a set of computers or computer-based equipment, such that information may lie transferred from any unit to any other unit A LAN by definition, does not extent beyond a couple of kilometers.

Media. Plural of medium The object or the material used to transfer information. Typically 't may tie a wire or cable. Other possibilities are. Fiber-optic. Coaxial cable. Twisted pair cable, etc.

Media-sharing LAN: A LAN scheme where all participants share the same medium for communication Modem1 A device to convert analogue base band signals to frequency translated signals corresponding to a carrier modulated signal It also translates carrier modulated signal to a base band signal. The currier modulated signal is required to transmit the signal oyer a standard telephone channel. Multiplexer. A device to combine multiple channels into one stream for transmission over one channel (of larger bandwidth,) Node. A connection or a device or any other significant position on the network, where a participant may be positioned Packet: A block of information sent over the network. Within the block boundary, there has to tie provision of source address, destination address, error handling information, sequencing information, the actual data and identification ol the data.

PAD (Packet Assembler/Dissembler) A device which enables access to a X 25 network by adding or removing the extra overhead needed by the X 25 network

PPP {Point-to-point Protocol) A TCP/IP i outing protocol for communication over a serial link.

Protocol. A set of rules specified, generally, by some standard producing body, such as ISO. to lay down strict guidelines on some repetitive function The advantage is that the solutions or products from different vendors, who all follow the protocol can be interchangeably used The protocol also enables a common approach to introducing further enhancements in the function or product

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM). A method for converting analogue signals to digital, for use in digital network. The analogue signal is first sampled, then each sample is converted to it's binary value The stream of the binary values is used in place of the original analogue signal.

RAM (Random Access Memory)- The electronic temporary memory used with any computer 01 a computer-like equipment. The RAM has the property that any information written in it is safe, either till is over-written, or till it continues to be supplied power. One major advantage is that RAM is much faster than other memory devices, e g Hard-Disk. ROM. etc

Repeater. A device used with digital signals Even a pure digital signal looses ifs shape during propagation along a media, due to the associated inductance and capacitance The repeater reads the partially misshaped signal and creates fresh reshaped pulses This can be repealed again and again, even over long distances fo preserve tfie data integrity

RJ-11. Name of a common telephone connector type. It provides for 4 wire connectivity. The shape and design of the connector force a wiping action on the contact surfaces, during insertion.

RJ-45. Name ot a common LAN connector type. This connector is very similar

to the RJ-11 connector, however. RJ-45 is much wider and provides for 8 wire connectivity This type is mostly used with Gat -5;' Cat -6 LAN cabling

ROM (Read Only Memory): A type of memory device on which the content are written jus! once, perhaps by some external process, but Read action can be undertaken by the computer any number of times. It is suitable for storing programmes and invariable data, which no one may be allowed to change.

Router: A device to interconnect various LANs or WANs together The router can take care of multiple protocols, including conversion. RS-232/ RS-232C Serial connectivity standard defined by the American Electrical Industry Association The basic standard is a current loop with 20mA current prescribed It can operate up to a kilometer distance between the sender and the receiver. The 'C version is based on voltage and allows up to meters distance. The RS-232C standard is same as the V.24 standard of CCITT.

Star Topology: A connectivity scheme, where all participants are directly connected to a central node, called the Hub Hence to establish contact between t w o outer node, the route is always over the Hub.

Stop Bit: The reverse of a start bit It signals the end of the transmission. Time Division Multiplexing1 A method of mixing multiple data streams for transmission over a common wide band channel. All the signals are sampled and may also be digitized One sample from each stream is placed in the outgoing stream. This is continued in cyclic manner. The receiver only needs to know the relative position of each channel, to retrieve it from the stream Token Passing. A method of accessing a local LAN. A token is a special software packet, which keeps circulating among all partners. The partner currently holding the token is entitled to transmit. This enables a more predictive transmission, as all nodes get a chance to transmit.

Topology: A description of the layout of a network. On one side networks are classified according to their topology. on the other side, topology helps understand the flow of packets around the network. The study of this enables identify bottlenecks.

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Typical installation of coupling capacitors with line traps