IEC 61850 meets CoAP: towards the integration of smart grids and IoT standards

Smart Grids are one of the main consequences of the digitalization of electrical grid infrastructures that aim to improve energy saving and efficiency. Within Smart Grids, different devices and electrical substations communicate with each other and need to be accessible from the outside. Thus, the need of embracing standards, such as those of International Electrotechnical Commission's (IEC), is pivotal. IEC 61850 is a standard that covers such a need, and different communication protocols have been proposed to fulfill the features that the standard proposes. Most proposals focus on heavyweight protocols. However, the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) demands resource-constrained devices to also participate in IoT networks. In this regard, new protocols have been designed and developed, such as the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). The work presented in this paper adopts CoAP to provide a full mapping of the functionalities specified in IEC 61850 for electrical substations. Furthermore, an analytical and critical review of the already proposed mapping approaches is provided. Future lines of research towards accelerating the adoption of IoT and Web of Things standards in Smart Grid scenarios are also provided.