Design and Evaluation of a Low-Latency CPC Environment for Virtual IEDs

Communication infrastructures are increasingly relying on Edge Computation as a method for increased flexibility and low latency performance. This vision, of a highly capable, low latency and orchestrated communication fringe, with extensive virtualization, is of particular interest to Protection Functions in modern power grids. Limitations are however present due to the low latency requirements in commodity hardware coupled with multiple virtualization layers, presenting challenges to the design of virtual Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). This work presents the architecture, key technological challenges, and results obtained when implementing virtualized functions, ported from real-world hardware solutions, and deployed to an orchestrated host, with support for extensive monitoring and security functions. Strict low latency requirements were observed, in accordance with the processing limits of IEC 61850 Sampled Values and GOOSE messages, following a declarative model using OASIS TOSCA, to define mixed-criticality virtualized elements that form a Centralized Protection and Control (CPC) device.