Systems and methods for communications devices having multiple interfaces

摘要

According to various embodiments, a communication switch may create and/or manage a variety of configurable network relationships between intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) connected via disparate network interfaces using a variety of communication protocols. Accordingly, a communication switch may provide media translation between various types of physical network ports and communication protocol conversion between various communication protocols. For example, a communication switch may be used to create a networked group of IEDs in which some IEDs are connected via Ethernet ports and other IEDs are connected via D-subminiature ports and/or optical ports. The communication switch may create and/or manage network relationships such as publisher/subscriber, master/slave, multidrop configurations, star configurations, and/or other complex network relationships between two or more IEDs or groups of IEDs.

主权项

1. A method for providing configurable switching between a plurality of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) comprising:
connecting a first plurality of IEDs to a communication switch via a first type of physical network port associated with a first communication protocol; connecting a second plurality of IEDs to the communication switch via a second type of physical network port associated with a second communication protocol; creating a group of IEDs comprising at least one IED from the first plurality of IEDs and at least one IED from the second plurality of IEDs; configuring at least one IED within the group of IEDs as a publisher IED configured to publish communications; configuring at least one IED within the group of IEDs as a subscriber IED to subscribe to communications transmitted by the publisher IED; and enabling IEDs connected via the first type of network port to communicate with IEDs connected via the second type of network port in a multidrop configuration by:
the communication switch determining whether the publisher IED and the subscriber IED are connected using different types of network ports;
when the publisher IED and the subscriber IED are connected using the same type of network ports, the communication switch transmitting communications between the plurality of IEDs; andwhen the publisher IED and the subscriber IED are connected using different types of network ports:
in a data conversion step, the communication switch converting data transmissions between the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol; andin a physical translation step, the communication switch translating data transmissions between the first type of physical network port and the second type of physical network port.