I am currently evaluating a power line carrier (PLC) communication solution and plan to use the ST8500.
The client’s equipment is quite densely packed, with several hundred units, and requires auxiliary communication via the power line to promptly detect equipment failures and crashes. The estimated node capacity needs to reach 1,000. These 1,000 units are distributed within a high-voltage transformer, which cannot be expanded or relocated.
According to the description in the ST Smart Grid Products brochure, the ST8500 can support a network of up to 1,200 nodes.
This raises the first question: are these nodes connected directly to a concentrator, or do they require repeaters to forward signals to the final concentrator? Do the repeaters need to be isolated from one another by transformers?
The client has a large number of devices, some of which have very high time-sensitivity requirements. Can these 1,000 nodes communicate across different frequency bands? Furthermore, this would involve a mixed-network configuration.
This leads to the second question: Are there any successful case studies of the ST8500 achieving mixed-band communication on the same physical line?
I have briefly reviewed the G3-PLC communication protocol and feel that, compared to the client’s functional requirements, the G3-PLC protocol is rather complex. The client only requires simple control logic and critical fault and disconnection alarms.
This leads to a third question: in a scenario with 1,000 nodes, for simple control logic and fault/disconnection detection, which mainstream protocol would you recommend, or should a proprietary protocol be used?
*This post has been translated from Chinese to comply with the ST Community guidelines.
