Intelligent electronic devices and networks are becoming an increasingly common presence in modern society and our day-to-day lives. Scary to some people, but also convenient and essential for future endeavours like the decarbonisation of transport or the intelligent generation and distribution of power.

IEC 61850 is an international standard defining communication protocol for intelligent electronic devices at electrical substations. As the standard evolves, so does its timing requirements to ensure the reliability, efficiency, and safety of modern electrical power systems. IEC 61850 is huge and multifaceted. It consists of an impressive body of recommendations, rules and protocols. Timing issues account for as little as 5 percent of IEC 61850, but are nonetheless essential for the reliability, efficiency and safety of modern electrical power systems.

In this white paper, we are going to take a closer look at the evolving timing requirements of IEC 61850. What challenges do they pose? And what are the benefits of the IEC 61850 standard when it comes to timing? Read on and find out!

I have been involved in projects that have brought time to industrial and warehouse applications for over 20 years. Computer time requirements were one of the main drivers for these projects, ensuring they have secure access to servers, etc. It also supports the need for accurate time stamps in processes and distributed databases.

Secure, reliable, extremely accurate and traceable timing services have never been more important than they are today. In the era of 4G and 5G, precise network synchronisation is critical for nearly all digital networks, and more stringent network stability requirements. Whether you are a company engaged in electronic trading, a telecommunications provider, or a data centre seeking to deliver timing services to tenants, accurate and reliable timing is essential and can make the difference between failure and compliance.

In PDH/SDH networks that require a stable frequency to operate efficiently, independence of your timing can easily be achieved by tracing back to one or more Caesium Atomic Clocks (such as ePRTC). In fact, the current international definition of the second derives from the transitions of Caesium-133. A commercial Caesium Atomic Clock will maintain Stratum 1 timing (1E-11) for the lifetime of the Caesium Beam Tube.

GPS, and now other GNSS sources such as GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, has been a major contributor to frequency and time sync in Tier 1 services in telecoms and enterprise for over 20 years. From the release of the first commercial NTP Server – the TymServe 2000 – to the latest generation is capable of serving over 300,000 NTP requests per second in a data centre.

It may be seen as fitting, or the whim of the technology gods, but now that telecom transport technologies no longer require accurate and stable timing to work at their best, the troubleshooting lines for network timing equipment are no longer as easily defined as they once were.

Fundamental networks no longer rely on timing for their own performance. However, there are many applications at the edge of these networks that still do. And it is these requirements that are becoming increasingly tight with each new generation.

In today’s interconnected and digitised world, networks are of crucial importance and support critical services and applications such as file sharing, collaboration tools, cloud services, and more. These services are essential for the smooth functioning of organisations. Even the slightest interruption or degradation can impact productivity, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, revenue generation. Additionally, unreliable, or weak networks can result in data loss, delays, or incomplete transfers, leading to data integrity issues and operational inefficiencies.

Timing is an interesting component of the modern telecommunication and IT equation. Although networks often don’t need timing anymore to stay operational (in the past networks couldn’t function without proper and impeccable timing), the applications on the edge of the network still do. This is especially true if you are dealing with GPS or 5G connections and technology. Many organizations aren’t aware of this and find it hard to deal with time issues because the knowledge of traditional network people isn’t there anymore.