The Modeling and Verification of Peer-to-Peer Negotiating Multiagent Colored Petri Nets for Wide-Area Backup Protection

This paper focuses on the modeling and verification of a peer-to-peer wide-area backup protection (WABP) system. Agents located in a number of substation intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) negotiate on a peer, or equal, basis. The agent-based wide-area backup protection scheme is able to find power-line faults and protection misoperations. A wide-area communication network based on IP technology is used to transmit shared information among the agents. A novel agent-oriented peer-to-peer negotiating colored Petri net (AOPCPN) is proposed to implement the WABP system. The algorithms, design, and dynamic behavior of the WABP is evaluated in a simulated environment to demonstrate its benefits. The article begins by presenting the generic AOPCPN architecture and its formal definition. The AOPCPN model for the WABP multiagent system is evaluated according to one algorithm, which is detailed in this article. The WABP agent´s autonomy, cooperation, parallel operation, and robustness are embodied in modules in order to ease the software engineering challenges in implementing and maintaining the agents. Three example scenarios illustrate the effectiveness of the Petri net model and its ability to dynamically respond to WABP misoperations and fault conditions.