Controlling of the native IEC 61850 objects differs from the way that an RTU control operation is defined by DNP3. In DNP3 standard, it is assumed that the controlling station decides the control type (pulse or persistent), pulse lengths and possible pulse trains (number of pulses). These control parameters are given to the RTU outstation in the CROB command. In the IEC 61850 standard, the same parameters and few additional parameters are configured as properties of the control objects. The control command issued to the control object is only a trigger. In a protection relay, the control object knows how to perform the physical control operation.
In CROB data, the given pulse type and pulse length values are ignored by the outstation. The only data that is checked by the outstation is the direction (ON or OFF). If the IEC 61850 data object is of persistent type, OFF is also possible. When controlling a double-pole IEC 61850 data object, the direction information is used.