Configure the Common Address

Use the Common Address field at the top of the IEC 60870-5 tab to specify a slave outstation’s common address.

For outstations that communicate using the IEC 60870-5-101 protocol, the address range varies, depending on the Common Address Size (see Configure the IEC 60870-5-101 Parameters):

• If the Common Address Size is 1 Octet, you can specify a Common Address in the range 0 to 254 inclusive.
• If the Common Address Size is 2 Octets, you can specify a Common Address in the range 0 to 65534 inclusive.

Outstations that communicate using the IEC 60870-5-104 protocol have a Common Address Size of 2 Octets, and an address range of 0 to 65534 inclusive.

If you are configuring an IEC 60870-5 Slave Direct Outstation that is a ‘parent’ of one or more IEC 60870-5 Slave Logical outstations, you need to:

• Define a unique Common Address for the ‘parent’ outstation
• Define unique Common Addresses for each of the ‘parent’ outstation’s Logical outstations.

With Slave Direct outstations that communicate using the IEC 60870-5-101 protocol, each outstation’s Link Address is used in conjunction with its Common Address to identify the outstation (see Configure the IEC 60870-5-101 Parameters).