Create Stronger Network Security—Control exactly what is allowed on your network with deny-by-default architecture. Provision circuits using network access control fields in Layer 1 through Layer 4 of the packet, giving you context-aware control of what conversations are allowed between any devices. SDN makes systems more cyber-secure by eliminating attack-prone networking features, like MAC tables, the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), and cast types.

Simplify Network Engineering—Automate network engineering tasks by importing existing IEC 61850 or RTAC communication configuration files into the SEL-5056 Flow Controller for streamlined network settings. This feature saves time and resources and greatly decreases the chance of input errors or misalignment between relay settings and network communication settings.

Improve Failover Performance—Proactively traffic-engineer your network, bringing more precision and predictability to critical infrastructure networks and improving failover times to less than 100 μs to support even the most demanding real-time control signals.

Streamline NERC CIP Data Collection—Use the SEL-5056 Flow Controller with SEL Flow Auditor software to automate reporting of NERC CIP-007-6 R1.1—Systems Security Management, Ports, and Services.

Reduce Downtime for Configuration—Configure the SEL-5056 Flow Controller in the field with all IEDs connected or configure it offline in a lab. Offline configuration provides flexibility and can reduce the downtime required for field installations.

Automate Configuration—Use Learn & Lock functionality to automate commissioning and device discovery and create circuit provisioning. Learn & Lock enables supervised automation of network flow provisioning.

Manage Network Scalability and Change Management—Manage all network changes without affecting existing services and applications. All network additions and changes can be configured centrally and pushed out to configure the network of SEL OT SDN Ethernet switches.

Programmatically Test and Validate Your Network—Reduce deployment timelines and eliminate guess work in testing scope by knowing exactly what communication circuits your network is configured to support and that all other conversations will be dropped with deny-by-default network access control. This results in a defined test scope and predictable and consistent network validation. You have confidence your network will perform exactly how you engineered it for as long as it is in service.