Traditional wind farm communications powered by ring-network switches face reliability and performance challenges to the availability of real-time data needed to ensure efficient operations and grid security:

• Communications are disrupted when wind turbines fail or are taken offline for maintenance
• Traditional communications – typically powered by switches without network management or Quality of Service (QoS) features – cannot reliably accommodate services such as video surveillance, because bandwidth is limited and adversely effected by network congestion
• Conversion devices needed to support low-speed interfaces increase risks of failure and support costs
• Wind farm locations are often remote and separated by long distances, making maintenance difficult and costly
• Harsh outdoor conditions – from extreme temperatures to sun, wind, rain and natural disasters – effect equipment as well as the communications network needed to manage it

Recognizing the need for stable, high-speed communications for integrating wind-turbine power plants into the power grid, Huawei turned to Passive Optical Networking for a flexible, cost-effective solution.

The Huawei xPON solution provides a bi-directional fiber-optic network between high-capacity, modular PON switches at the control center and Optical Network Units (ONUs), which collect and transmit data from the wind farm. The ONU supports multiple downstream connections, including PON, Fast Ethernet (FE), and RS232/RS485 without additional interface devices. Network topology can be chain, ring, or tree.

Huawei xPON Wind Farm Communications Solution

Integrated xPON design for reliable, high-speed communications for wind farm power management

Huawei’s xPON solution integrates support for a broad range of monitoring and control systems into a cost-effective and resilient fiber-optic network:

The MA5600 PON Switch is a high-performance, multiple service access platform:

• Configurable network ports, service ports, and maintenance ports
• Switching capacity of 48 Gbit/s; packet forwarding capacity of up to 72 Mbit/s.
• Extensible, modular design for easy expandability – supports extremely large-scale grids

Passive optical networking is simpler than active WDM networking, with fewer components, and less expensive to install and maintain. And end-to-end performance meets bandwidth, responsiveness, and reliability requirements:

• Uptime performance up to 99.999%
• Bi-directional bandwidth up to 1.25 Gbit/s over long distances (12 miles/20 km)
• Data link redundancy protection with 50 ms switchover
• Industrial grade durability for operating in harsh outdoor conditions

Combined with advances in wind turbine design, Huawei’s xPON communications solution makes this renewable, environmentally-friendly source of energy practical to integrate with large-scale power grids.

Check out Huawei’s Specialized Video Surveillance Solutions optimized for computer-vision, object recognition, and image processing applications.

Harnessing wind power is a breeze with Huawei’s xPON Communications Solution for wind farms.

• High performance at low cost – Passive Optical Networking (PON) simplifies the network, eliminating sources of failure as well as equipment costs, while providing fiber-optic line speeds.
• Flexible networking options – support chain, ring, and tree network topologies to reduce optical fiber investments, provide configurable redundancy, and accommodate growth.
• Integrates easily and fully with any IP-based devices and applications – end-to-end support for PON, FE and RS232/RS485 connections.
• Extremely high reliability – simplified, passive transmission with built-in redundancy, and industrial components designed to operate in harsh, outdoor environments.
• Plenty of line speed for high-bandwidth applications (video monitoring and surveillance) over long distances – up to 12 miles (20 km) at 1.25 Gbit/s.
• Prepare for future growth and new services with a dedicated network operating at fiber-optic speeds and uptime performance of 99.999%.

Ride the wind to success. Contact a Huawei Partner now, or Email Us for more information.