G3 Attributes

G3 technologies provide many attributes which may be used to tweak the G3 protocol stack behaviour to better fulfil specific use cases or to better match local particularities. Yet changing the value of an attribute or doing so for a combination of attributes can lead to sub-optimal performance and even malfunction.

The default values defined in the G3 specification will work for almost all G3 deployments, but configuration changes can be made to optimise behaviour for an end-user’s specific requirements.

Care must be taken when choosing and changing parameters. Some combinations of values or inconsistencies (i.e. devices having different values for the same attribute) may cause network or communication issues. A few attributes are linked with upper-layer behaviour, requiring synchronisation between the G3 protocol stack and upper layers.

To optimise G3-PLC and G3-Hybrid configurations and to avoid issues from misconfiguration, the G3-Alliance published the Attribute Usage Guidelines and developed an online Attributes Configuration Tool. Both the user guideline and the online tool are available for members of the G3-Alliance after logging in on the website.

For example system integrators and manufacturers can use this tool to determine the right attributes values for a specific implementation. But also DSOs can use the tool to determine the right attributes values for their network and see how to optimise the performance of the network.