Protection schemes of EPON-based communication network for offshore wind power farms

Current approach used in wind power farms (WPFs) is based on Ethernet Switches (ESWs), which tend to be very expensive due to the industrial-grade Switches used. We proposed the use of Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) for the communication architectures of WPFs. This paper studies the reliability vs cost issue of deploying EPON based communication network for controlling/monitoring offshore WPF. Three scenarios are considered: Switched Ethernet, bus-based EPON and star-based EPON. To ensure the delivery of monitoring data to the control center, different redundant protection schemes are considered to overcome the network outage if device/link failure. Network performance in view of connection availability, mean downtime, resiliency and network cost has been evaluated, compared and discussed. The results show that bus-based EPON architecture provides a cost-effective solution compared with conventional switched-based communication networks.