Development of Fiber Optic Network for Underground Distribution Systems

This article describes the development of a communication network using fiber optics in underground distribution networks. This development aims to use optical fiber in order to remove electromagnetic and atmospheric interference from the communication network, increase the data transmission capacity and maintain a low operational cost. This fiber optic network will be developed with the ring communication topology, allowing the use of communication protocols such as DNP3 and those within the IEC 61850 standard (MMS and GOOSE). As a redundancy protocol, this network will use the REP (Resilient Ethernet Protocol) as an alternative to the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). The study presented in this article is part of the Urban Futurability research and development (R&D) project, from Enel Distribuição São Paulo. The project was carried out in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in a region with a high-density load and about 20,000 consumer units of the residential and commercial type.