IP(IPv6): The Protocol of Choice for Smart Grid(?)

By on February 5, 2010 in Community Manager

At the GridCom Forum, a panel discussed the roles of IP and IPv6. In the ICT area, IP is becoming (or has become) the protocol of choice. A consensus is forming for smart grid as well. NIST’s "Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0” lists IP as one of the standards that people can agree on.

The panel consisted of:
Moderator:

Panelists:

  • Fred Baker, Cisco Fellow
  • Gary Stuebing, strategic planning manager, Duke Energy
  • Latif Ladid, president, IPv6 Forum


Geoff Mulligan


From left: Latif Ladid, Gary Stuebing, and Fred Baker

Mulligan first discussed the imminent depletion of IPv4 addresses, which are expected to run out in two years. The solution is IPv6, which provides plenty of address space and security. (IPSec is part of IPv6 and will no longer be independently implemented like for IPv4.) With IPv6 in place, DHCP or NAT will no longer be necessary to save IP address space, simplifying many things.

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Sun Reference Architecture for Oracle 11g Grid
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Baker’s talk was very convincing. In short, the original Internet stack consists of physical layers (OSI is layer 1, data link is layer 2, the Internet is layer 3, and transport is layer 4) and application layers (5, 6, and 7). But many smart grid protocols, such as ZigBee, are implemented directly on top of the link layer. Baker called this "1-2-7 architecture.” Each protocol with a different link layer must go through a gateway in order to connect to other protocols, which are also directly implemented on separate link layers. Using an abstraction of the IP layer ensures interoperability. IP is the common denominator, and it should be used in smart grid as well.

Stuebing discussed Duke Energy, a utility in the Midwest and the Carolinas with 4 million retail electric and half a million gas customers. He showed the following diagram from the NIST report (page 45) mentioned earlier in this blog, and he argued that IP must be in place to ensure smooth communication among the many elements in a complex system like smart grid.

According to Stuebing, there is no other protocol as well understood and as widely used as IP, or that meets the following qualifications:

  • Proven technology
  • Secure transport layer
  • Non-proprietary

Although I was an IP bigot to start with, I was convinced that IP will be the protocol of choice.

Zen Kishimoto

About Zen Kishimoto

Dr. Zen Kishimoto is in charge of Green IT at Alta Terra. His broad technology background and diverse functional roles at individual-contributor and executive levels in large corporations and start-ups is a strong basis for conducting research in the greening of IT. Both strategic and tactical insights based on these experiences are necessary to make IT and its related technologies greener, since both a holistic and component-level view are necessary. This is specifically so in his first area of concentration—data centers—in which a large number of software, computer hardware, and networking components as well as facility elements are interrelated and configured in a complex manner. For over 25 years, Zen was involved in various technology areas as a user and a vendor, including software development methodologies/process/tools, Open Source Software (OSS), Internet/Network security, embedded software/systems, networking, Web, VoIP and to name a few. Based on exposure to those multiple technology areas, he can take a view from the perspectives of a user and a vendor of each technology as necessary. After working for Fortune 100 companies, Zen has been a successful entrepreneur and software business consultant specializing in product management, turning technologies to viable business and covering each phase of product management. This includes market research, technology assessment, project management, technical marketing, promotion, product launch, business development and sales. In addition, he produced numerous research papers for his clients in the areas of software and telecommunication as a consultant. In addition, Zen, originally from Japan, has a web of business contacts and relationships in Japan and is keen on the green IT/Technology market outside of the US, bridging language, culture and business practice for his clients. As greening of IT and its related technologies require a global view, he can give appropriate advices and comments not confined to the US domestic view but global ones for his clients. Finally, before joining Alta Terra, he has played CTO, COO and other executive roles in Silicon Valley startups, including Cardsoft. Earlier he served as functional general manager and Senior Director at NEC Technologies, where he started the Internet business unit. He has held technical positions at NEC, Hewlett Packard and GTE. He is also the principal of IP Devices, a software business and market research consultancy specializing in IT infrastructure.
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