The IEC 60870-5-103 protocol can only operate on a serial communication link. The standard defines serial data characteristics.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Com speed | 9600 or 19200 bauds |
| Data bits | 8 |
| Parity | Even |
| Start bits | 1 |
| Stop bits | 1 |
Depending on the IED model and variant, the serial communication cards can host one or several serial channels. The IEC 60870-5-103 protocol can operate in up to two instances and therefore supporting two IEC 60870-5-103 masters in parallel. The two instances will share the same point configuration, but each instance has its own independent Class 1 event buffer. Instances can also have different Class 2 measurand frames. Separate link setting parameters exist for both instances. Setting parameters have the suffixes 1 or 2 depending on the instance.
A function block represents the IEC 60870-5-103 protocol on the IED’s application configuration level. The block is named I3CLPRT1 or I3CLPRT2, depending on which of the two protocol instances is in use.
By default, Instance 1 is active in the IED, but needs to be set “On” by the Operation parameter. For additional clients, an instance has to be activated by dragging a function block to the configuration in the Application Configuration tool of the PCM600.