What does a PIXIT provide?

PIXIT stands for “Protocol Implementation eXtra Information for Testing”. The objective is to provide crucial information for the test lab.

One example is the value for the “Maximum number of clients that can set-up a 2-party association simultaneously”, e.g., value=16. Does this mean that the maximum number of clients is restricted to 16? No! The value of 16 is used by the Testlab to run test cases. The number can be much bigger!

The PIXIT document for a SystemCorp IEC 61850 IED lists for the stack/API ina value of 16 – BUT the stack/API and the IED supports up to 255 clients!

If you want to know what a device supports, you should read technical specifications of the IED. A lot of vendors use the PIXIT also as a kind of technical specification. The PIXIT documents should contain a note that the values given in the PIXIT document may be restricted for testing purposes only. PIXIT documents should also show the limits of the IED when applied in real applications.

Download PIXIT Document for a specific IED.