2024 Communications Conference | Towards a new era of smart distribution network construction, Ruijie Networks releases dual-plane distribution communication solution

Recently , the 2024 Energy Network Communication Innovation and Application Conference with the theme of "Accelerating the digitalization of communications and helping to build a new energy system" was successfully concluded in Chengdu, Sichuan . The conference focused on the needs of building a new energy system and a new power system, and discussed the latest trends and achievements in innovative applications of energy network communications, the integrated integration of "main, distribution, and micro" communication networks, distribution communication networks, and the digital transformation of communications.

Ruijie Networks was invited to attend the conference and fully demonstrated its innovative research results in power communications in the equipment exhibition area, including dual-plane distribution communications solutions, smart substation WAPI trusted wireless solutions, etc. At the same time, Zou Songhe, Director of Power Energy Technology at Ruijie Networks, shared the communication digital transformation solution of "Scenario Innovation to Promote Digital Transformation of Power Grids".

As an industry-leading network infrastructure and solution provider, Ruijie Networks demonstrated through a "disassembly method" that the SDN isolation industrial switch supports the architecture of dual-plane physical isolation with one device. The end-to-end demonstration environment built based on actual business attracted leading experts from the power industry who attended the conference to stop and watch, and to have in-depth discussions on the digital evolution of substations.

Ruijie Dual-Plane Power Distribution Communication Network Solution

In the context of smart distribution network construction, the role of distribution network is undergoing profound changes. It is no longer limited to carrying data collection tasks in traditional production areas, but is further expanded to support dispatching and control services and diversified applications related to management areas. This means that the original communication architecture needs to be upgraded to two physically isolated networks to meet the requirements of business isolation and information security.

This undoubtedly brought huge challenges to the power distribution network. The number of network devices, the number of links, and the amount of cable deployment almost doubled, and the pressure of operation and maintenance management suddenly increased. In the limited space of the ring main cabinet environment, how to efficiently and compactly deploy new equipment? How to meet the needs of various topologies? How to ensure the security of the power distribution communication network? How to reduce the complexity of distribution network communication operation and maintenance? It once became the most difficult problem.

Based on this, Ruijie Networks innovatively proposed the concept of "one machine, two networks", focusing on the three core goals of reducing costs, improving efficiency and ensuring quality, and incorporating a number of key technological innovations, such as intelligent visual operation and maintenance functions, security reinforcement measures, and enhanced network reliability strategies. It ultimately successfully launched a dual-plane distribution communication solution, providing power grid users with efficient, secure and easy-to-manage communication infrastructure.

It can reduce the complexity of the distribution network. The SDN isolated industrial switch supports a dual-plane physical isolation architecture with one device. It can carry industrial control services and data collection services at the same time. Two devices can be combined into one, and the cost can be reduced by 30%. It avoids the construction of two physical networks, reduces the complexity of network construction, network construction costs and operation and maintenance costs. Improve operation and inspection efficiency: Through SDN technology, the second and third layer industrial switches of the entire network are uniformly managed, centralized operation and maintenance, and efficiency is improved. Improve the security of the distribution network: Through the security access technology, the problem of illegal terminal access to the network can be effectively prevented; Improve the reliability of the distribution network: Through the ring network protocol, ring network protection, virtualization and other technologies, timely discover faults and accurately locate alarms to improve the reliability of the distribution network.

Ruijie Smart Substation WAPI Trusted Wireless Solution

With the advancement of digital transformation and the construction of digital power grids and smart grids, new intelligent services represented by robot remote inspection, intelligent safety monitoring of equipment operation, and mobile office of operation and maintenance personnel have emerged in substations. These services generally present the characteristics of "large bandwidth, mobility, and large connections". The existing wired communication methods of substations cannot meet the needs of mobility, and traditional wireless communication technologies such as public 4G and Wi-Fi have problems such as weak public wireless signal coverage, business access needs to traverse internal and external networks, poor security, high traffic costs, difficult deployment, and difficult operation and maintenance.

Ruijie's WAPI trusted wireless solution for smart substations opens up the "last mile" of substation communications and successfully connects to digital smart services such as inspection robots, smart inspection cameras, dynamic environment monitoring, and mobile office. It solves the problems of online equipment operation status detection, mobile office of on-site personnel, and lack of secure wireless access methods for mobile terminals in substation inspection scenarios, and strongly supports the digital transformation of power grid substations.

Due to its high security, the video data collected by the inspection robot can be directly connected to the company's global IoT platform through the integrated data network. Operation and maintenance personnel can remotely view the inspection images and remotely control the robot, realizing real-time online direct acquisition between the IoT platform layer and the perception layer. In the future, AI artificial intelligence analysis and other technologies can be used to analyze inspection images in real time, identify defects, reduce the workload of manual image viewing and defect identification, and truly realize unmanned and intelligent substation inspections.

Ningxia Lingzhou 800kv Converter Station

Ruijie Trusted Wireless Helps Implement Intelligent Substation Construction

The Lingzhou-Shaoxing ±800kV UHV DC transmission project is a strategic key project of the country's "West-to-East Power Transmission" and an important part of the UHV power grid construction of the State Grid Corporation. As the first UHV converter station in Ningxia, the Lingzhou converter station has seen explosive growth in various digital services, especially sensors, auxiliary controls, smart helmets, mobile operation terminals, robots and other terminals. The existing wired communication method in the station has shortcomings such as inflexible terminal access and difficult wiring, which cannot meet the network needs after business growth. It is necessary to build a secure wireless network with "high bandwidth, mobility, wide connection, high security and full coverage" .

• Trusted and highly secure : The trusted WLAN network adopts a ternary peer-to-peer security architecture. The terminal (STA), device (AP/AC), and authentication server (AS) all have unique independent digital identities. The three physical entities verify the legitimacy of each other's identities. This not only prevents illegal terminals from accessing the trusted WLAN network, but also prevents legal terminals from accessing illegal APs.
• Good service guarantee : Supports real-time access to video data from mobile helmets, cameras, inspection robots, etc., and provides high-bandwidth, low-latency network access.
• Terminal zero roaming : During the mobile inspection of inspection machines and handheld terminals across APs, the unique roaming optimization technology can reduce the roaming packet loss rate by 60% and the roaming delay to 30ms.

Looking to the future, Ruijie Networks will continue to break through barriers, continue to innovate, and open up for win-win situations! It will provide strong communication support for building a new power system and provide a safe, stable, smart and agile communication network foundation for power production.