The demands of a modern way of life have changed the way power electronics systems work. For instance, the grid has to provide not only the service of delivering electrical energy but also the communication to enable interactions between customers and enable them to be producers of electrical energy, too. Thus, the smart grid has come into existence. The consequence of the smart grid is that consumers could be “smart.” The most obvious consumers are households, so the houses have to also be smart and must be equipped with various power electronics devices for producing and managing electrical energy. Again, all those devices have to communicate somehow and provide data for managing electrical energy in the house. Zoomed in further, novel, state-of-the-art measurement equipment could have been built from different power electronics devices, and communication among them would be necessary for good operation. Zoomed further in, communication among different pieces of power electronics devices (such as converters) could offer benefits such as flexibility, abstraction, and modularity. This thesis provides insight into different communication techniques and protocols used in power electronics systems. A top-down approach presents three different levels of communication used in real-life projects with all the challenges they bring, starting with the smart house, followed by the state-of-the-art impedance measurement unit, and finalizing with internal power electronics building block (PEBB) communication. In the case of a smart house, where the house is equipped with solar panels, charge controllers, batteries, and inverters, communication allows interoperation between different elements of the power electronics system, enabling energy management. Results show the operation of the system and energy management algorithm. A house of this type won first prize at an international competition where energy management was one of the disciplines. The impedance measurement unit consists of different power electronics devices. In this case, too, communication between devices enables the operation of the impedance measurement unit. Communication techniques used here are shown together with measurement results. Finally, inter-PEBB communication has been shown as an approach for interaction among the different elements inside the PEBB, such as controller, GDs, sensors, and actuators. Real-time communication protocol, including all challenges, is described and developed. This approach is shown to enable communication and synchronization among different nodes inside the PEBB. Communication enables all internal elements of the PEBB to be transparent outside the PEBB in the sense that data gathered from them could be reused anywhere else in the system. Also, this approach enables the development of distributed event (time) driven control, hardware and software, abstraction, high modularity, and flexibility. A very important aspect of inter-PEBB communication is synchronization. A simple technique of sharing a clock among the parts of a 6 kV PEBB has been shown. / M.S. / This thesis provides insight into different communication techniques and protocols used in power electronics systems. A top-down approach presents three different levels of communication used in real-life projects with all the challenges they bring, starting with the smart house and a custom device designed and developed to be a communication interface among different power electronics devices from different vendors, such as charge controllers or inverters, but with capabilities not only to communicate but to also provide a platform for the development of energy management algorithms used to make houses grid zero if not grid positive. Aside from the smart house, this thesis describes communication protocols and techniques used in the impedance measurement unit (IMU). This complex measurement device provides valuable and accurate impedance measurements and consists of different power electronics devices that need to communicate. Finally, at the power electronics building block (PEBB) level, real-time communication protocol with all challenges is described. Developed communication protocol provides communication and synchronization among different nodes such as GDs, sensors, and actuators inside the PEBB. This intra-PEBB communication and synchronization combined with inter-PEBB communication and synchronization provide the foundation for the development of truly distributed event- (time-) driven control as well as hardware and software abstraction.

Industrial Ethernet Communication protocols for Real-Time communication is the focus of research in a variety of different industrial Applications. The subject of thesis study is a comprehensive analysis of Industrial Ethernet protocols used in safety-critical real-time environment, comparing these based on performance, safety, diagnostics and error detection features, topology preference, cost incurred and openness of the protocol. The protocols chosen for this comparisons are ModbusTCP, EtherNet/IP, Ethernet Powerlink, Profinet IO, EtherCAT®, Sercos III, and CC-LINK IE, because they are most relevant for real-time applications and they have a widespread global presence in a lot of industrial applications. The industry in focus here is the spacecraft industry, which is a perfect example of a real-time safety-critical environment, where the protocols need to perform under harsh conditions, such as vibrations, exposure to radiation , extreme temperatures and low atmospheric pressure, and have strict timing requirements. The communication protocols for this environment are held to very high standards of performance and communication accuracy. The challenge here is to implement a protocol that can provide deterministic, real-time communication in such extreme conditions. The protocol in focus here is the ModbusTCP protocol , that is implemented on the ESBO-DS Stratospheric Balloon project to establish a communication link with the pointing system on board. ModbusTCP is chosen for this application because it is reliable, has a large support base, it is easy to implement, transparent and extremely interoperable. All these benefits along with providing real-time communication on a space-based application gives us a good reason to continuing the use of ModbusTCP here. The conclusion of the comparison of the selected real-time communication Industrial Ethernet protocols is that there is no “best ” protocol, and the choice of protocol depends on the application in focus. EtherCAT, SERCOS III and PROFINET IRT are all powerful hard real-time protocols, but require dedicated and expensive hardware for implementation. CC-Link IE is also a popular hard real-time protocol that uses special hardware and is well-established in the East Asian countries. Ethernet/IP and ModbusTCP control a large market share in the Industrial Communication domain in addition to providing good performance easily available tools. Ethernet Powerlink is open and provides both implementation and specification royalty free on its organisations website. / Industriella Ethernet-kommunikationsprotokoll för realtidskommunikation är fokus för forskning inom en mängd olika industriella tillämpningar. Ämnet för avhandlingsstudien är en omfattande analys av industriella Ethernet-protokoll som används i säkerhetskritiska realtidsmiljöer, som jämför dessa baserat på prestanda, säkerhet, diagnostik och feldetekteringsfunktioner, topologipreferenser, uppkomna kostnader och protokollets öppenhet. De valda protokollen för dessa jämförelser är ModbusTCP, EtherNet/IP, Ethernet Powerlink, Profinet IO, EtherCAT®, Sercos III och CC-LINK IE, eftersom de är mest relevanta för realtidsapplikationer och de har en utbredd global närvaro i många industriella tillämpningar. Branschen i fokus här är rymdfarkostindustrin, som är ett perfekt exempel på en realtidssäkerhetskritisk miljö, där protokollen måste fungera under tuffa förhållanden, såsom vibrationer, exponering för strålning, extrema temperaturer och lågt atmosfärstryck, och har strikta tidskrav. Kommunikationsprotokollen för denna miljö håller mycket höga standarder för prestanda och kommunikationsnoggrannhet. Utmaningen här är att implementera ett protokoll som kan tillhandahålla deterministisk kommunikation i realtid under sådana extrema förhållanden. Protokollet i fokus här är ModbusTCP-protokollet, som är implementerat i ESBO-DS Stratospheric Balloon-projektet för att upprätta en kommunikationslänk med peksystemet ombord. ModbusTCP är vald för denna applikation eftersom den är pålitlig, har en stor supportbas, den är lätt att implementera, transparent och extremt driftskompatibel. Alla dessa fördelar tillsammans med att tillhandahålla realtidskommunikation på en rymdbaserad applikation ger oss en god anledning att fortsätta använda ModbusTCP här. Slutsatsen av jämförelsen av de valda realtidskommunikationens Industrial Ethernet-protokoll är att det inte finns något bästaprotokoll, och valet av protokoll beror på applikationen i fokus. EtherCAT, SERCOS III och PROFINET IRT är alla kraftfulla hårda realtidsprotokoll, men kräver dedikerad och dyr hårdvara för implementering. CC-Link IE är också ett populärt hårt realtidsprotokoll som använder speciell hårdvara och är väletablerat i de östasiatiska länderna. Ethernet/IP och ModbusTCP kontrollerar en stor marknadsandel inom industriell kommunikationsdomän förutom att de tillhandahåller bra prestanda lättillgängliga verktyg. Ethernet Powerlink är öppet och tillhandahåller både implementering och specifikation royaltyfritt på sin organisations webbplats.