2016   It is not clearly described, how the content of a role is deployed when a role is instanciated

Created: 09 Jan 2026

Status: Triage

Part: Part 7-6 (2024)

Links:

Page: 52

Clause: 6.2.5 Actions to perform during the instantiation

Paragraph: General

Issue

“A FunctionRole is composed of FunctionRoleContent defining the elements participating to this specific role of the Application. This allows the instantiation of the content multiple times when
cardinality allows multiple instances. » (from IEC TR 61850-7-6 ed2.0 clause 6.1.6)
“The FunctionRoleContent defines the list of references to SCL elements participating to the Application Role: Function, BehaviorDescription, ProcessResource and Variable.”

These references are expressed as paths using the following attributes:
• FunctionRef.function
• BehaviorDescriptionRef.behaviorDescription
• ProcessResourceRef.processResource
• VariableRef.variable
• FunctionCategoryRef. functionCategory
• PowerSystemRelationRef.powerSystemRelation

In the table “Actions to perform during the instantiation process” the step I5 describes “Instantiate application function roles depending on cardinality constraint and selector expression ».

However, the consequences of this role instantiation are not fully described.
Instantiating a role consists in deploying the elements participating in this Application Role at the location selected for that role.
The tool performing the instantiation shall update the references in the list of attributes listed above accordingly.
When a role is resolved, all elements of that role are deployed at the same location.
Therefore, an explanation and a restriction should be added to clarify that all references in the FunctionRoleContent must point to the same location before and after instantiation.
If this is not possible, the user should split the role and create several separate roles.

Proposal

Explain the role instantiation in detail in line I5

Add a restriction in clause 6.1.6 to stating that all references in the FunctionRoleContent shall point to the same location.
If this cannot be ensured, the user should split the role and create several separate roles.