How Do I Set MAC Addresses for an IEC 61850 GOOSE Subscriber?

Issue Details

When I create a GOOSE subscriber using the Create GOOSE Subscriber . vi, I find I need to set the adapter MAC address and the multicast MAC address. Where can I find these two MAC addresses?

Solution

For the adapter MAC address, you should use your network interface card (NIC) MAC address. If you are running the VI on Windows PC, you can find your PC's MAC address (labeled as Physical Address) by typing the command ipconfig /all in a Command Prompt window. If you run the VI on a NI Linux Real-Time target, you can find the MAC address on the Network Settings tab of your remote device in Measurement & Automation Explorer. 

For the multicast MAC address, you should use the GOOSE control block (i.e. publisher) multicast MAC address as defined in the publisher SCL file. Take the GOOSE VI example for instance, which is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2014\examples\IEC61850\GOOSE. The IEC61850_GOOSE_example.icd contains the MAC address needed for the multicast MAC address, as seen below: 
            <GSE ldInst="L1" cbName="gcPeerA">
               <Address>
                  <P type="VLAN-ID">0</P>
                  <P type="VLAN-PRIORITY">4</P>
                  <P type="MAC-Address">01-0C-CD-01-00-00</P>
                  <P type="APPID">0</P>
               </Address>
            </GSE>