A review of communication protocols and topologies for power converters

Communications within power converters is becoming increasingly important particularly with the evolution of multilevel converters having distributed control structures. In the not so distant past, communications were used primarily for reference point setting and monitoring. Currently however communication is taking on an integral role in the control of the power converters particularly those with distributed control architectures. In mission critical applications such as variable speed drives for marine propulsion, reliability in the control structure is critically important. Hence, the communication system must likewise demonstrate high reliability. It is seen that such reliability may readily be assured through the use of redundant hardware. This paper presents a review of the common network topologies and communication hierarchies that can be used for distributed control of power converters. A number of commonly used protocols are discussed and future trends are highlighted.