Exploring the Reliability of Commercial 5G Standalone Networks for Virtual Fault Passage Indication

Petra Raussi, Heli Kokkoniemi-Tarkkanen*, Jorma Kilpi, Anna Kulmala, Petri Hovila

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference article in proceedingsScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Virtual fault passage indication (FPI) operating on an edge device is one of the most intriguing applications to revolutionize power system protection operations on an architectural level. Edge computing is a key enabler of this transition. Wireless 5G technology enables operating power system applications on an edge device at local data centers and other locations closer to data sources than in traditional cloud computing. Prior wireless technologies facilitated only cloud computing, which has too high communication delays for the reliable operation of protection applications. With the edge computing, future medium voltage grids could consist of only sensors and merging units for measurement digitalization interconnected to the physical grid. At the same time, all the power system applications and intelligence could be centralized to specific locations on the edge. Thus, the measurement and status information from the grid could be analyzed and used for various applications within a larger geographical area than a single intelligent electronic device (IED) is capable of operating.
5G networks have been under tremendous development in recent years. Commercial networks have shifted from offering non-standalone solutions, which use a combination of legacy 4G core with 5G radio access network, to standalone (SA) 5G networks, which include native 5G core and advanced services for critical communications. To understand the capabilities of the commercial 5G SA, we have implemented a pilot environment consisting of controller-hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) real-time simulation with commercial IEDs and a 5G network as the system under test. Quality of service (QoS) measurement setup for communication networks has been integrated into the CHIL to verify the results.
10101
D2 Information Systems and Telecommunication
PS3 Meeting the challenges of energy transition with reliable, scalable, and efficient telecommunications network
2024 Paris Session
1
In this paper, we aim to statistically show the reliability of the commercial public 5G SA network for virtual FPI use case and its capability to determine the fault direction irrespective of the wireless communication. The virtual FPI receives Sampled Value measurements from several merging units, determines the fault direction at the edge device, and sends trip commands back to the breakers. We have simultaneously measured round trip time and fault direction with the CHIL and communication network performance with a passive QoS measurement system to validate the results.
Our results show that in the best case, the reliability of the virtual FPI via 5G SA is 99.9958% during a 12-measurement cycle of 24 000 instigated faults. These results are being reported for the first time in this paper. This measurement cycle was selected to capture various traffic and user scenarios of the communication network during different times of the day. The QoS measurements were recorded at the millisecond level, and faults were instigated every other second to receive statistical results. The fault direction was selected successfully for every instigated fault. Furthermore, a selected case when the fault indication was not able to perform successfully due to communication network issues will be presented in detail to understand what can occur in the events of communication network issues. Studying this specific case will contribute to advancing the understanding of managing failure and maintenance situations. For future work, the development of the experimental setup for different applications and additional 5G features will be discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCIGRE Paris Session 2024
PublisherConseil international des grands réseaux électriques (CIGRE)
Number of pages11
Publication statusPublished - 23 Aug 2024
MoE publication typeA4 Article in a conference publication
EventCIGRE Paris Session 2024 - Paris, France
Duration: 25 Aug 202430 Aug 2024

Conference

ConferenceCIGRE Paris Session 2024
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityParis
Period25/08/2430/08/24

Funding

This work was supported in part by Business Finland under the projects IFORGE and REEVA.

Keywords

  • 5G
  • 5G standalone
  • protection
  • fault
  • fault indication
  • edge computing

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