DNP3 Driver

VOLTTRON’s DNP3 driver enables the use of DNP3 (Distributed Network Protocol) communications, reading and writing points via a DNP3 Outstation.

In order to use a DNP3 driver to read and write point data, a server component (i.e., Outstation) must also be configured and running.

Requirements

The DNP3 driver requires the dnp3-python package, a wrapper on Pydnp3 package. This package can be installed in an activated environment with:

pip install dnp3-python

Driver Configuration

There is one argument for the “driver_config” section of the DNP3 driver configuration file:

Here is a sample DNP3 driver configuration file:

{
"driver_config": {"master_ip": "0.0.0.0", "outstation_ip": "127.0.0.1",
    "master_id": 2, "outstation_id": 1,
    "port":  20000},
"registry_config":"config://udd-Dnp3.csv",
    "driver_type": "udd_dnp3",
"interval": 5,
"timezone": "UTC",
"campus": "campus-vm",
"building": "building-vm",
"unit": "Dnp3",
    "publish_depth_first_all": true,
"heart_beat_point": "random_bool"
}

A sample DNP3 driver configuration file can be found in the VOLTTRON repository in services/core/PlatformDriverAgent/example_configurations/test_dnp3.config.

DNP3 Registry Configuration File

The driver’s registry configuration file, a CSV file, specifies which DNP3 points the driver will read and/or write. Each row configures a single DNP3 point.

The following columns are required for each row:

• Volttron Point Name - The name used by the VOLTTRON platform and agents to refer to the point.

• Group - The point’s DNP3 group number.

• Variation - THe permit negotiated exchange of data formatted, i.e., data type.

• Index - The point’s index number within its DNP3 data type (which is derived from its DNP3 group number).

• Scaling - A factor by which to multiply point values.

• Units - Point value units.

• Writable - TRUE or FALSE, indicating whether the point can be written by the driver (FALSE = read-only).

Consult the DNP3 data dictionary for a point’s Group and Index values. Point definitions in the data dictionary are by agreement between the DNP3 Outstation and Master. The VOLTTRON DNP3Agent loads the data dictionary of point definitions from the JSON file at “point_definitions_path” in the DNP3Agent’s config file.

A sample data dictionary is available in services/core/DNP3Agent/dnp3/mesa_points.config.

Point definitions in the DNP3 driver’s registry should look something like this:

DNP3

Point Name	Volttron Point Name	Group	Variation	Index	Scaling	Units	Writable	Notes
AnalogInput_index0	AnalogInput_index0	30	6	0	1	NA	FALSE	Double Analogue input without status
BinaryInput_index0	BinaryInput_index0	1	2	0	1	NA	FALSE	Single bit binary input with status
AnalogOutput_index0	AnalogOutput_index0	40	4	0	1	NA	TRUE	Double-precision floating point with flags
BinaryOutput_index0	BinaryOutput_index0	10	2	0	1	NA	TRUE	Binary Output with flags

A sample DNP3 driver registry configuration file is available in services/core/PlatformDriverAgent/example_configurations/dnp3.csv.

For more information about Group Variation definition, please refer to dnp3.Variation.