Research on Embedded Power Communication Equipment Platform

In recent years, various communication technologies have been widely used in power communication services. With the development of power grids to smart grids and the further development of enterprise information, new demands for high-bandwidth, high-reliability, disaster-tolerant, and wide-coverage have been proposed for power communications. . Among these communication devices, embedded systems have been used more and more, and especially the application of some new technologies has brought new ideas and new requirements for the development of embedded systems. On the basis of shielding different hardware platforms or even different operating systems, the references of concepts such as middleware and virtual machines form a supporting platform that meets the different requirements of application software on communication devices, providing a unified interface for the development of upper-layer embedded application software. It also provides a new development model and implementation idea for embedded systems.

As the communication equipment becomes more and more complex, the complexity of the embedded system becomes higher and higher, and many of the current communication equipment development is still a small workshop type, and the repeated development is serious, resulting in a lot of waste of resources, and also making the development Speed ​​and product quality are difficult to meet the needs of market development. How to simplify the software design through the platform technology, reduce the development workload through the reuse of modules, and improve the stability of the system has become a very urgent task. After years of efforts, China Electric Power Research Institute has achieved certain achievements and experiences in the development of embedded power communication equipment, such as industrial Ethernet switches used in smart substations and passive optical network equipment in power communication. Auxiliary transmission line monitoring CMA monitoring agent device. Under such circumstances, in order to make the development of the embedded power communication equipment towards generalization, standardization, serialization, modularization, and platformization, it provides stable and reliable protection for the interconnection, intercommunication, and interoperability within and outside the system. It is significant to study and build the basic platform of embedded power communication equipment.

1 Research content 1.1 Standards for the development phase The basic platform for R&D is to serve the development of serialized embedded devices. The basic platform that is out of the device development is lacking in application value. This has created a situation that is closely related to and inseparable from the development of basic platforms and actual equipment development. Therefore, defining and standardizing the functions of the basic platform in various development stages of embedded device development is of great significance for building the basic platform.

According to the summary of equipment development experience, five development stages are summarized. The basic platform is further refined in accordance with these five stages, defining the division of functions, standardizing the development process, defining the boundaries and functions of each link, and forming the overall guidance of the development process. The book also facilitates better management of the project. The five phases are: the design and verification of the previous period; debugging hardware, verifying the basic functions of each function board; building a system platform, establishing an appropriate system on each function board to form the basis for development; and building a development platform in each The functional board implements the application software development foundation based on the middleware; assists application debugging, provides a development environment for application developers, and solves platform-related issues.

1.2 Planning and Upgrading of Processors In the field of embedded communication devices, it is necessary to build an adaptive processor-based minimum system based on the application characteristics of each device, such as performance requirements, functional requirements, and environmental requirements. This is the processor of the embedded device. platform.

Combine the application requirements analysis to plan the processor platform as a whole and make corresponding core modules for different scales of applications. Follow-up development and upgrade can be targeted for development in each file processor platform. Such a development idea is conducive to modularization, standardization, and serialization of equipment development.

1.3 The construction of technology bus Based on the characteristics of communication equipment, combined with the basis of existing equipment development, the following three technical buses are summarized for standardized development: Gigabit Ethernet switching bus, Fast Ethernet switching bus and control-oriented low-speed strings. Line bus. These three buses have different characteristics and characteristics, and they act like central nervous systems in communication devices, ensuring the smooth flow of internal data flow and control instructions. Based on the concept of platform combination, the corresponding hardware interface definitions, driver encapsulation, and application-oriented API specifications were separately implemented for the three buses, which greatly improved the reuse of hardware modules and program interfaces in the device. 1.4 Operation Support Layer As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1 , the basic platform implements an OSL (Operating Support Layer) layer on the interface of the operating system layer to support various communication applications. It is aimed at some specific requirements of equipment software in the communications industry. It implements customizable components and middleware modules in the platform, including system support modules, business support modules, memory databases, general algorithm modules, and protocol implementation modules. This allows upper application designers to only care about the implementation of specific services without having to dig deeper into the details of the underlying operating system.

1.5 Communications Application Development Environment The underlying platform implements the Windows WindOb environment, reference to the Wind River development environment, visual configuration of functional components and middleware based on the Eclipse development kit, automatic generation of finite state machine framework code for communication, and testing of communication applications. Simulation and online help functions are integrated into a unified set of development environments for communication applications. As an auxiliary tool set for the basic platform, an integrated development test environment for communication applications is formed to improve the development standardization and test efficiency of the basic platform.

2 Technical Difficulties 2.1 Connotation of the Basic Platform The concept of the epitaxial base platform is quite broad. Its connotation and extension have too many attributes and it is difficult to clearly define it. In this project, it will be reduced to a basic platform for the development of embedded communication equipment. In other words, the basic platform for embedded communication equipment defined based on the existing development and accumulation of ICT and the future development plan will be based on this. Only in this way can the basic platform be effectively brought into play in the development of actual equipment, and the role of hardware and software coordination. Therefore, defining the connotation and extension of this basic platform must be based on the consideration and induction of local conditions so that the project can play its due role.

2.2 Technology Accumulation and Precipitation Technology Accumulation and Precipitation is an important goal for basic platform R&D. Through the R&D of the basic platform, a development system architecture for embedded communication devices is built to give full play to its reusable and portable features. Efforts in the direction of standardization, serialization, modularization, and platformization will greatly benefit the improvement of ICT equipment development capabilities. To clarify this goal and implement this goal in the research and development of the basic platform, we can truly play the role and significance of the basic platform. As for how to carry out technology accumulation and precipitation, both form and content need to be considered and summed up to form a set of effective methods.

2.3 Technical Risks of Platform Upgrades While summarizing existing knowledge, the basic platform needs to be synchronized with platform upgrades based on the actual needs of equipment development. This will involve hardware system upgrades, operating system upgrades, middleware upgrades, and many other aspects. . Therefore, building a stable platform that satisfies the requirements of the application environment is a relatively complicated task. It requires a comprehensive analysis of requirements, detailed design and planning, and pragmatic development and implementation. There is a large development risk in this area.

<br> <br> 3 Conclusion In summary, there is a basic platform manageability, reconfigurable, reusable, portable, etc., which brings many advantages for the development of equipment: save labor costs and speeds development , improve product stability and reliability. Utilizing this basic platform can adapt well to the constantly changing requirements of communication equipment in power situations. Therefore, it is of great benefit to study and construct an application-oriented device infrastructure platform based on local conditions.