Fault Resilient Communication Network
Architecture for Monitoring and Control of Wind
Power Farms
Shahid Hussain*, Young-Chon Kim*** Department of Computer Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, South Korea** Smart Grid Research Center, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, South Korea
shahiduop@jbnu.ac.kr, yckim@jbnu.ac.kr

Abstract— Real time monitoring and control of wind power farm (WPF) require a highly reliable communication network
infrastructure. The monitoring and control can be guaranteed through the communication network by using redundant resourcesand ensuring quality of service (QoS) for different applications. In this paper, we study and simulate fault-resilient networkarchitecture for monitoring and controlling of WPF. First, communication network topologies are explored. Then we propose afault-resilient communication network architecture which consists of three different levels: (1) data generation level, (2) dataaggregation level, and (3) control center level. Each level is defined by its function, physical location, network topology,
communication link bandwidth, redundant nodes, and links. In accordance to IEC 61400-25 standard, the monitoring traffic ofwind turbine is classified into critical and non-critical data according to the required QoS. Due to low cost, non-proprietary
standard, and guaranteed real-time services, the Ethernet technologies are currently used in various industrial applications. Several
network failure scenarios based on Ethernet technology are used to simulate the network architecture through OPNET. The
performance of the network architecture is evaluated on the basis of the amount of received data, end-to-end delay, and data loss atcontrol center. The simulation results show that the communication network architecture can guarantee the transmission of WPF
critical data.
Keyword— Communication Networks; IEC61400-25; Monitor and Control; Reliability and Resiliency; Wind Power

Shahid Hussain (M’15) was born in 1982 at Wazir Garhi, District Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He received hisB.Sc in mathematics 2002 and M.Sc in computer science 2005 from University of Peshawar, Peshawar Pakistan. He worked as
Network Administrator at Pakistan Oilseed Development Board (PODB), Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) Tarnab FarmPeshawar, Pakistan from July, 2005 to Oct. 2008. Then he joined CSD zonal office Peshawar Pakistan as Network Engineer. He also
worked as lecturer at department of computer science, university of Peshawar, Peshawar Pakistan. He is currently working toward
his MS in Computer Engineering at the Chonbuk National University, South Korea. His research interests include wireless sensor
networks, and communication networks for next generation wind power farms.

Young-Chon Kim: He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, in 1980, 1982,
and 1987, respectively. He joined the Department of Computer Engineering at Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea,
in 1986 and is now a Professor in the School of Information Technology at Chonbuk National University. From 1989 to 1990, hewas a post-doctorate fellow at the University of California, Irvine. Also, from 1998 to 2000, he worked as a visiting researcher at theNetwork Research laboratory at the University of California, Davis. He was awarded Best Professor from the College ofEngineering, Chonbuk National University, in 2002. He was also awarded the Motorola Academic Excellence award in 2003. His
research interests include high-speed optical communication networks, next generation IP networks, and broadband wirelesscommunication networks.