Benefits of DNP3

Because DNP3 is based on the IEC 870-5 requirements, DNP3 is suitable for application in the entire SCADA environment. This includes RTU to IED communications, master to remote communications, and even peer-to-peer instances and network applications.

Being an object-based application layer protocol, DNP3 has the flexibility to support multiple operating modes such as poll-response, polled report-by-exception, unsolicited responses and peer-to-peer. It permits multiple masters and encourages distributed intelligence.

Users can expect many benefits from using DNP3. In the short term:

• Interoperability between multi-vendor devices
• Fewer protocols to support in the field
• Reduced software costs
• No protocol translators needed
• Shorter delivery schedules
• Less testing, maintenance and training
• Improved documentation
• Independent conformance testing
• Support by independent users group and third-party sources (e.g. test sets, source code)

In the long term, further benefits can be derived from using DNP3, including:

• Easy system expansion
• Long product life
• More value-added products from vendors
• Faster adoption of new technology
• Major operations savings