To GOOSE or not to GOOSE? - that is the question

IEC 61850 - the international standard for substation communications - enables the development of a range of conventional and new types of applications based on high-speed Peer-to-Peer communications using GOOSE messages. The communications in the substation automation system can be between devices at the same level of the functional hierarchy or between the substation, bay and process levels of the system. The different types of communications have to meet specific performance requirements defined in details by the standard. Switched Ethernet eliminates many of the concerns regarding non-deterministic operation within the substation automation system. VLAN and Priority tagging need to be supported by the hardware and the applications in order to ensure high-speed operation for time critical functions such as protection and control. The GOOSE model includes different attributes that allow the achievement of significant benefits compared to conventional hard-wired systems. So the answer to the question in the title of the paper is definitely “To GOOSE!”