ION 8650 network TCP/IP Stack

[Andy_Taylor]

My company (APT) supports a local customer with a large installed base of ION 8600 and ION 8650 meters.

This customer is updating their network infrastructure, which involves migrating from an existing Cisco-based switch infrastructure to a new ESDN (Enterprise Software Defined Networking) network infrastructure.  Unfortunately, we are having significant issues getting the ION 8600/8650 meters to work with the new infrastructure. The underlying issue is that the ION 8600/8650 meters do not appear to generate any outbound network traffic when initially connected to the network, and thus the ESDN network cannot map the device into its connected device table. 

We really need to get connected with someone at Schneider Electric who really understands the TCP/IP stack in the ION 8600/8650 meters so they can help our ESDN engineering team debug and resolve the issue. The meters themselves do not seem to have any configuration or diagnostic features that we can find to resolve this problem.

We can certainly try tech support for this issue, but we understand this is NOT a typical tech support response item.  Appreciate any help, and especially further discussion on networking requirements for devices.

Regards,

Andy

[Hal_Etheridge]

Power cycling the device should force it to generate an ARP request.  Likewise on every IP address change an ARP request should be triggered to confirm the new IP is not being used.  Otherwise the device will not be generating any traffic because it is a *server* and not a client.

The IP address is typically static for servers (those without DNS support anyway) so can you not just connect the device to the network and try and communicate to it from another computer?  That should just generate an ARP broadcast request from the computer to the network segment that the destination IP address is supposed to be on.  Once received that will trigger the device to send an ARP response and thus register itself with the networking infrastructure.

[Andy_Taylor · Accepted solution]

@Hal_Etheridge 

Hal:

Appreciate your suggestion - but that won't work as a solution for this customer.

This client is looking for large scale solution to implement at the meter level so that any of these meters are deployed the meter is configured to generate an ARP request when connected to the network.

        Possible work arounds being considered - NTP time synch, MeterMail, and even DNS on those meters that support it.

The point of ESDN is to NOT require connecting to every device from another computer, so the work arounds above might be the solution.

Do you have any other suggestions for work arounds that we could configure on the meter itself?

Regards,

Andy

[Charles_Murison]

Hello Andy,

Another possibility along the lines of what you are already thinking is setting a meter up as a Modbus master via Ethernet connection. This would also force a meter to initiate an outbound connection when connected to the network. The IP address of the device does not even need to exist.

[Liangchen1982]

Hello,

Do we have a fix for this issue? I met another similar issue with CAISO ION8650 meters in US needs to be addressed.

Thanks

Leo

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @Liangchen1982 ,

The answer is the same, the ION8650 meters will not make an outbound connection unless programmed to do so. The easiest why to program a meter to make an outbound connection is to make meter modbus master something that does not exist. When the read now input of the Modbus device Module is pulsed, the meter would try to connect, this would force meter that send message out on the network.

Regards,

Charles

[Liangchen1982]

Thanks @Charles_Murison , I am planning to test it in our lab with a testing ION8650 meter. Is there an easy way to replicate the issue so I could test the framework?

[Charles_Murison]

Hello @Liangchen1982 ,

Each network is going to be unique so there is no formal test for this.

Regards,

Charles