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APPLICATION NOTE - HSR/RSTP
High Availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR) and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
(RSTP/IEEE802.1W) Interoperability through the iS5Com’s iRBX6GF HSR/PRP
Switch (RedBox)
There has been an existing problem with integrating HSR and RSTP directly in electric
substation networks and similar applications. Many legacy substations are running
networks based upon RSTP for redundancy. However, recently more substations are
migrating towards HSR/ PRP protocol. There is always a challenge in integrating this
legacy architecture which is based on RSTP with newer IED/ Relays that supports HSR/
PRP protocols.
While RSTP has been adequate for many applications, it adds significant convergence
times for network recovery due to the nature of the RSTP protocol (5 m/s convergence per
switch). Second and more importantly, it is not possible to scale existing RSTP networks
by connecting HSR enabled devices such as a relay or other Intelligent Electronic Device
(IED) in the same RSTP network. The reason is that these redundancy protocols operate in
opposition to each other. HSR requires rings to operate and RSTP break rings by design.
RSTP allows redundant connections but these connections are placed in standby mode
until needed in order to provide a loop free network.
iS5 Communications developed and patented the HSR/RSTP domain separation
technology incorporated in the iRBX6GF. iS5Com’s patent allows HSR and RSTP domains
to interoperate on a network. With this technology, the user can eliminate the requirement
to have a ring of IP Layer 3 routers doing the same function for connectivity but at a much
slower speed for network failover.
P R OT O C O L O V E R V I E W
HIGH-AVAILABILITY SEAMLESS REDUNDANCY (HSR) IEC 62439-3
The High-availability Seamless Redundancy protocol delivers zero recovery time in case of a
network element failure by utilizing a ring of network nodes and end devices. An HSR network
node has two ports operating in parallel; typically, referred to as a Doubly Attached Node with
HSR protocol (DANH).
A typical HSR is a ring topology that consist of doubly attached devices where each device has
two ring ports which helps to minimize the connection counts and cabling. The connections
between the devices are full duplex in configuration. See figure 1.
Messages sent from the publishing device is duplicated into an “A” frame and a “B” frame, and
sent out both ports in opposite directions around the ring. The receiving device accepts the
first frame received and discards the second. If a network link fails, the copy of the message
traveling the other direction around the ring will be received and used. This creates a “lossless”
network that deals with link failure without losing any frames.
Figure 1.0 SAN SAN
Source
iRBX6GF iRBX6GF
HSR Ring
Frames arrive first Discards duplicate frames
Destination
DANH DANH DANH DANH DANH
RAPID SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) manages redundant paths in Ethernet networks, resulting in
loop-free logical topologies. The basic functions of STP are to prevent bridge loops and their
resulting broadcast storms. Spanning tree allows backup links to be designed into networks to
provide fault tolerance if an active link fails. STP detects the physical connections between
switches and manages which links are active and which are standby. There are no network
loops allowed to operate in real-time.
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (IEEE802.1D 2004) is the most recent version of Spanning Tree
Protocol. RSTP breaks network loops, however it does not offer a zero-packet loss guarantee.
When there is a link failure, RSTP takes time to detect the failure and send the traffic on a different
path. During this time, data will be lost.
Figure 2.0 F – Port in forwarding state
B – Port in blocking state
F F
F F
F Path B
Priority - 32000 F F F Priority - 8000
Path
Path
Priority - 32000 F F
B B
Path
HSR-RSTP PROTOCOL INTEROPERABILITY
The iRBX6GF contains proprietary technology that allows the entire HSR ring to appear to the
RSTP networks as a single switch hop. Consequently, for the RSTP protocol, the ring appears as
a single connection, not as a loop to be broken.
The Resilient (or reliable) HSR ring provides a lossless environment for the RSTP networks
to connect to. As a result of this interoperability, a robust network can be built that
incorporates multiple RSTP networks connected to one big HSR Ring.
The below diagram illustrates how the iRBX6GF functions to directly connect HSR and RSTP.
Figure 3.0
• RSTP BPDUs are tagged with
hidden VLAN ID to represent the
RSTP Domain ID before being Virtual RSTP port
sent over the HSR ring representing the HSR
• BPDUs received on the HSR side ring to RSTP
are passed to the virtual RSTP
port only if matching the locally
configured Domain ID HSR RING RSTP RING
Guidelines for the iRBX6GF configuration implementation
Below are the guidelines to consider when designing an RSTP network that would
interoperate with the HSR protocol.
• RSTP Domain ID should be configured on the iRBX6GF (HSR Device)- It is necessary to
identify the RSTP groups to the HSR network.
• If multiple RSTP groups would be connecting to an HSR ring, a different Domain ID must
be configured for each of the RSTP rings, in order to distinguish the RSTP BPDUs for
different groups.
• HSR Ring is represented to the RSTP state machine with a virtual RSTP port as per the
diagram. The RSTP group sees this as another part of the existing RSTP domain.
• RSTP state machines can block the RSTP virtual port to prevent switch loops, yet does
not impact HSR ring operation. The HSR ring is viewed as a single switch hop in the RSTP
domain.
• RSTP BPDUs exiting an RSTP network side are tagged with a hidden VLAN ID to
represent the RSTP Domain ID before being sent over the HSR Ring. This allows multiple
RSTP groups to be used without interference on the HSR ring.
• BPDUs received on the HSR Side are passed to the virtual RSTP switch port only if
matching the locally configured Domain ID. RSTP domains must be identified with the
iRBX6GF in order to be accepted/used.
• All BPDUs received on the HSR side not matching the locally configured RSTP Domain
ID are ignored and not passed to the virtual RSTP switch port. This prevents RSTP from
interrupting HSR ring operation and disallows any RSTP BPDUs that are not configured
in the iRBX6GF.
When these settings are met, and the necessary connections are configured on each iRBX6GF,
the network looks like the diagram below.
Note that RSTP also counts switch hops from the source of the data to the destination of it.
Even though the HSR rings have multiple nodes, the RSTP network views the HSR rings as a
single RSTP switch connection while going from one side of the HSR ring to the other.
See Figure 4 on next page
Figure 4.0
iRBX6GF (HSR devices, RedBox)
RSTP ID = 2 Core HSR Ring RSTP ID = 1
RSTP domain ID per
RSTP domain
RSTP ID = 3
As we add VLANs into the mix, the HSR ring becomes the high availability backbone for
multiple RSTP networks. It allows for creating a very flexible, low cost, high availability
network environment that is easy to deploy and maintain. Utilities widely use private
IP addressing as they own the networks and the connectivity to the Control Centers.
Using the iS5Com technology, the user can eliminate the requirement to have a ring of
IP Layer 3 routers doing the same function for connectivity with a much slower speed
f o r n e t w o r k f a i l ove r.
HSR based rings that connect seamlessly to multiple RSTP based networks
can be created in the substations. This would create a network that reacts
extremely fast to connectivity issues (ie. cut in the fiber optic cable) and
minimizes data loss during these events until the damaged connections are re-
established.
L3 Switch
Control Room
Figure 5.0 VLAN 0 (Operator) L2 Switch
VLAN S (Scada)
TRUNK
Substation A VLAN M (Maintenance) Substation D
VLAN G (Goose)
VLAN G (Goose)
VLAN S (Scada)
VLAN S (Scada)
Maintenance
Maintenance
VLAN M
VLAN M
Substation B Substation C
VLAN M (Maintenance) VLAN M (Maintenance)
VLAN G (Goose) VLAN G (Goose)
VLAN S (Scada) VLAN S (Scada)
HSR/RSTP EXAMPLE ( CUSTOMER USE CASE)
THE CHALLENGE
A customer was expanding an existing large substation with new HSR capable
I E D ’s s u p p o r t i n g I E C 6 1 8 5 0 p r o t o c o l s a n d h a d a n e x i s t i n g R S T P b a s e d n e t w o r k
supporting Ethernet-enabled IED’s and legacy relays that use RS232 serial
communications. The Ethernet attached relays were connected to Ethernet
s w i t c h e s , a n d t h e l e g a c y s e r i a l re l ay s w e re a t t a c h e d to s e r i a l d ev i c e s e r ve r s t h a t
were connected to the RSTP based Ethernet network. The customer wanted to expand
t h e c o n t ro l n e t w o r k w i t h o u t a d d i n g a s e p a ra t e I P s u b n e t a n d h a v i n g to p u rc h a s e
and install routers that also had to support HSR.
Central
Office
Legacy RSTP Substation
Network
TP TP Lin
RS RS ks
ng ng upp
rti rti Lin ort
po po ks ing
sup sup upp RST
P
Link Link
ort
ing
RS
TP
iRBX6GF iRBX6GF iRBX6GF iRBX6GF
HSR HSR
Rating #1 Rating #2
HSR HSR HSR HSR HSR HSR
Attached Attached Attached Attached Attached Attached
IED IED IED IED IED IED
THE SOLUTION
The iRBX6GFs are used to create HSR rings in the newly installed IEC81850 based electric
relay system as well as use RSTP connections to connect to the existing RSTP network using
redundant links. The entire substation now uses a single set of IP address to communicate
within the substation. As IEC61850 GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event)
messaging is not IP routable, this new Layer 2 network moves the high-speed GOOSE data
without the use of an IP router, by running GRE tunneling to move the GOOSE data
throughout the substation at wire-speed.
ABOUT iS5 COMMUNICATIONS INC.
iS5 Communications Inc. (“iS5Com”) is a global provider of integrated services and solutions,
and manufacturer of intelligent Industrial Ethernet products. Our products are designed to meet
the stringent demand requirements of utility sub-stations, roadside transportation, rail, and
industrial applications. iS5Com’s services and products are key enablers of advanced technology
implementation such as the Smart Grid, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Intelligent Oil Field,
and Internet of Things. All products have the ability to transmit data efficiently without the loss
of any packets under harsh environments and EMI conditions.
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