News and Product Updates

JumboSwitch® Adds Real Time Latency Monitoring to Confirm Teleprotection-over-IP Network Consistency

Real time latency monitoring, a critical software feature for isolating communications problems for Power Utility teleprotection-over-IP applications, has been added to four interface cards offered by the JumboSwitch Multiservice gigabit Ethernet Switch Platform from TC Communications.

Called “LateView™,” it provides real time latency monitoring and also records latency history in a graphical format to help determine the health of a communication network during a specific time period.

Because teleprotection communications involves synchronization, latency and consistency, LateView™ can be an invaluable tool for helping Teleprotection and Communications engineers determine the source of a problem. For example, is the problem with the protection equipment or with the communications equipment?

LateView™ is currently available on the following JumboSwitch interface cards:

• Serial over IP
• G.703/64K-to-IP co-directional
• C37.94-to-IP
• Analog-to-IP 600ohm

Because it provides such essential information, the LateView™ software tool could become a de facto standard for teleprotection-over-IP communications devices, according to Ben Huai, Engineering Manager for TC Communications.

“Teleprotection engineers need to know that their teleprotection relay communications network is operating flawlessly and consistently,” said Ben. “They will welcome the confidence that LateView™’s access to real time and historical latency data will give them.”

LateView™ monitors interface card pairs that users can designate by IP addresses and card types. Its values are illustrated by a graph that depicts latency by milliseconds (msec.) in a vertical axis and the date in a horizontal axis. Polling cycles are typically set at once every second.

Acceptable latency ranges vary for every application; however, typical fluctuations should be less than 0.5 msec. LateView™ also enables users to set alarm thresholds that meet their specified specification parameters. For example, a user requiring a latency of 5 msec. could set alarm traps for less than 4.75 msec. or more than 5.25 msec.

The JumboSwitch currently offers 14 different interface cards. The “Turbo” Serial-over-IP card (TC3847-3), G.703/64K (TC3846-1), C37.94 (TC3846-2) & Analog (TC3846-6) cards are specially designed for Teleprotection Relay communications & other delay-sensitive applications.