 IEC 60870-5-103 is an international standard, released by IEC (International

Electrotechnical Comission) at the beginning of the 90ies. It allows the

coupling of a central unit to several protection devices and is primarily used in
the energy sector. The standardized function range is especially designed for
the communication with protection devices and therefore it's difficulty to
adapt it to other applications.

The protocol is based on the EPA architecture (Enhanced Performance

Architecture), defining only the physical link and application layer of the OSI
layer model.

IEC 60870-5-103 is mainly used for relatively slow transmission media on

asynchronous V.24 (RS232) and RS485 interfaces. Connection via fibre optics is
also covered by the standard. The transmission speed in general is specified
with a maximum of 19200 Baud.

IEC 60870-5-103 is a 'Companion Standard' and is extended by the following

standards:

o IEC 60870-5-1
defines different frame formats, IEC 60870-5-103 applies only the
FT1.2 format
o IEC 60870-5-2
defines the transmission mode on the link layer
o IEC 60870-5-3
defines the basic application data structure
o IEC 60870-5-4
defines how information elements are encoded
o IEC 60870-5-5
defines basic application layer functions

Interoperability between devices by different vendors is ensured by the

interoperability list, which is defined by the standard. In the list, the function
range is defined for each device by marking the applicable functions. The
common denominator between different vendor lists defines the possible
function range.

In addition to standard protocol functions, IEC 60870-5-103 also

accommodates extensions for proprietary vendor-specific functions. These are
used extensively by manufacturers of protection devices. As a result
compatibility between devices by different vendors cannot always be ensured.
The function range can further be extended by using generic data objects,
which allow the transmission of any kind of information in both directions.
ISO/OSI Model
Application Layer
IEC 60870-5-103
7
IEC 60870-5-5, IEC 60870-5-4
6 Presentation Layer n/a
5 Session Layer n/a
4 Transport Layer n/a
3 Network Layer n/a
Link Layer unbalanced
2 IEC 60870-5-2
IEC 60870-5-1 (FT 1.2)
Physical Layer EIA RS485, RS232 (V.24), Fibre
1
Optics
Supported Standardized Information Types
Control Direction

 Double Command
Monitoring Direction

 Double indication [2 bit] with quality and time tag

 Double indication [2 bit] with quality, time tag and relative time
 Measured normalized value with quality
 Measured floating point value with quality, time tag and relative time
Selection of Supported Generic Information Types
Control Direction

 Single indication [1 Bit]

 Double indication [2 bit]
 ASCII 8-bit code
 Measured scaled value
 Measured floating point value
Monitoring Direction

 Single indication [1 Bit]

 Double indication [2 bit]
 ASCII 8-bit code
 Measured scaled value
 Measured floating point value
Protocol Features
 Physical Layer
PCM, half-duplex
 Link Layer
Party line or point to point
  Application Layer
On-demand transmission (e. g. double indications, analogs, ...)
Spontaneous transmission (e. g. double indications with time tag, ...)
Command execution
Clock synchronization
 Address Space
Link address: 0..255
Common Address of ASDU: 1..255
Function Type: 0..253
Information number: 0..255
Available Protocol Stacks
IEC 60870-5-103, Master
IEC 60870-5-103, Slave