The software program LIAN 98, running on the operating systems Windows® ( 98, 2000, XP 32 bit and Vista 32 bit ) from Microsoft®, can be used for three different tasks in the field of telecontrol systems and power system control.

. as protocol router
. for the simulation of telecontrol equipments ( master/ slave )
. for monitoring, supervision and analysis of data transmission lines.

It has been developed in order to make flexible, user-friendly, clear and independent from special measuring instruments the analysis of serial data transmission for pulse-code-modulated protocols and network protocols as well as the simulation of complete systems such as master stations, substations, process interfaces (telecontrol heads or telecontrol nodes), process computers etc.

Editing of send telegrams as well as the transmission- and receive data are displayed on a logical level. All telegrams are realized and for each individual telegram clearly laid out cards are available in order to set the necessary values. The plaintext display mode of the transmission- and receive data facilitates the search for specified values. That will mean the laborious and time-consuming analysis of individual bits or particular hexadecimal values has been dropped completely for the service teams of telecontrol system operators.

In this way the software is equally suitable for developers of telecontrol or power control systems when testing or commissionning telecontrol stations and for operators of telecontrol systems in order to carry out data tests, supervision and error analysis of an existing system.

With the LIAN 98 software you will get a solid, adaptable and user-friendly measuring instrument that will save you much time and facilitates decisively your work.

• All necessary jobs for a trouble free operation, such as the configuration of each single channel, editing of telegrams, transmission and receipt of telegrams, archiving etc. can be called up out of one mainframe. Each required function can be called or activated without problems via easy comprehensible buttons. While recording is running trouble free in the background, telegrams can be edited, sequences created, filters that are necessary for recording or action filters that are necessary for the simulation can be set in the meantime.

• Telegrams can be sent single, cyclic or multiple. Furthermore several telegrams out of different TDB buffers can be linked to a sequence. Faulty telegrams can be edited and sent, too ( K1... K8 ).

• You can receive and transmit on four channels ( optionally 8 channels ) simultaneously and set each channel for another protocol. The change between the individual protocols can be handled quickly and without problems. The settings of the single channels with all for the operation necessary settings of paramount and protocol- specific parameters is done clearly and comfortably via input- dialogue- or selection fields. ( KNF file )

• Recording of the transmission data is not limited to a small time window but can last several hours or even days. All recorded data are stored chronologically for later analysis in an archive file having a size of up to 32 Megabytes and each entry in the archive file includes the actual time. During recording, the transmission is permanently supervised on transmission errors. If an error occurs, an error message ( e.g. checksum error ) is stored together with the transmission data in the archive file and further detailled information to the error in the PRO-File. All send- and receive data are stored in the archive in binary code. When opening the ARC file this recorded data are converted to an easily read procedure specific plain text and displayed on screen. In order to optimize the output you can select between 5 different display formats ( FMT file )

• As one is interested only in some specific parts of the records in most cases, it is possible to activate data format specific filters and triggers for the recording ( VFL file ) or the analysis of the recorded data ( NFL file ) in order to achieve a carefully directed data pre-selection, which results in a reduction of the data.

• Of course, the LIAN 98 software can be used besides the protocol supervision also for the simulation of subsystems like outstations and master stations, process interfaces ( telecontrol head or telecontrol nodes ), process computers etc. The software can work thereby alternatively as master- or substation. Messages or link records can be transmitted individually or as a non-channel-specific sequence. For each transmission protocol up to 500 send buffers are available that can be allocated freely by the user ( SIM file ). You will find further details to the simulation in the description of the individual protocols.

• With the dial-up function ( AWD ) it is possible to test stations ( master or substation ) via phone line. The LIAN 98 software can make a connection via modem and phone line to a remote station and transmit data to or receive data from this station. In this way the necessary tests can be done comfortably out of the office via the phone line. The login takes place with a password.