How to Migrate to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)?

IEC TC 57 just published a new draft document for a future Technical Report:

IEC 62357-200 TR (57/1563/DTR):
Power systems management and associated information exchange –
Part 200: Guidelines for migration to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)

Application: Utility communications using utility-owned and leased networks, including, but not restricted to communication within substations, from substation to substation, from substation to control center / maintenance center, control center to control center, energy management systems, synchrophasors, distributed and bulk energy generation and storage resources and (including fossil fuel plants and renewables) wind-, and solar power generation, storage, demand side management, and demand response for distribution level consumers / producers.

This draft Technical Report addresses the issues encountered when migrating from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). It describes migration strategies, covering impact on applications, communication stack, network elements, configuration, address allocation, cyber security, and the related management.

The migration will add new need and require more skills of the engineers. It is highly recommended to have some people that start learning the changes that will come during the next 30+ years.

Maybe you start with a small group as we did in the standardization process 15+ years ago in Seattle (WA) in 1999:

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Be aware that the “network infrastructure” becomes one of the most crucial basics for all other infrastructures.

Would your company’s communications infrastructure survive a blackout like the one in The Netherlands today (2015-03-27)?

“Dutch electricity network administrator Tennet says that a large part of North Holland province, which is home to some 2.7 million people, was hit by the outage.

Tennet said on its Twitter feed that the outage was caused by a “technical fault” a high-voltage power station in the town of Diemen, just outside Amsterdam.”

Source: The Independent

I hope it was not caused by an “unknown” GOOSE Trip Message! … Which – at least – would mean it was not related to TCP/IP … IPv4 or IPv6. I am kidding! … a bit.

Are Standards changing too fast?

There is are many SCADA users that think standards are changing too fast. I guess this is true for the many interface standards for sensors and actuators (the so-called fieldbusses and sensor interfaces). Lets have a look on the most crucial communication standards used in IEC 61850 and IEC 61400-25:

Layer 7	MMS (ISO 9506)	some 20 years; likely to stay unchanged
Layer 5-6	ISO Presentation and Session	some 20 years
Layer 4	TCP	some 30 years; likely to stay for a long time
Layer 3	IP	some 30 years v4; likely that v6 will stay for decades
Layer 2	Ethernet	basics: 30 years

One crucial is that wide area monitoring seems to be build on top of TCP/IP - all over. There is no difference in the many different solutions from the transport layer viewpoint. IEC 61850-8-1 (mapping to MMS) is stable since UCA 2.0 (mid of the 90's). RTU protocols like DNP3 or IEC 60870-5-101 have changed from serial links to TCP/IP - became more convergent to IEC 61850!! Guess these protocols will be extended to become convergent at model and configuration levels.

When it comes to the application layers, there seems to be mainly ONE standard profile stable: The profile shown above - which is QUITE STABLE.

There were (and are still) many people criticizing that the communication protocols in IEC 61850 are not following new developments faster (e.g., in the application of webservices)! Most people like what we have. When discussing webservices, the question is: Which one?? There is not an "old" solution like MMS that is around for 20 years. What is discussed is: use IEC 61400-25-2 dedicated webservices, use OPC UA webservices or use DPWS, or ... Reaching consensus in the selection of webservices may take some time. In the meantime we have the stable stack in IEC 61850-8-1. That is what I call: Sustainable Interoperability.

IPv4 address pool is empty - what to do?

As of 3 February 2011, the central pool of available IPv4 addresses managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is empty.

It means that the central pool of available IPv4 addresses managed by the IANA (www.iana.org/numbers) is empty. As of February 2011, most of the four billion IPv4 addresses available have been allocated for use or reserved for a specific technical purpose.

It is recommended to change to IPv6 in the near future.

Click HERE for more information [pdf].

One of the first IEC 61850 products that is able to support IPv4 and IPv6 is the Beck Chip - even it is not yet required in IEC 61850-8-1 Edition 2 FDIS.