The DNP Users Group is a California nonprofit public mutual benefit nonprofit Corporation, operating as a nonprofit organization pursuant to United States IRS code 501(c)(6). The primary purpose of the corporation is to maintain and promote the Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3), a non-proprietary, standards based communication protocol widely used in the utility industry. The DNP Users Group supports the DNP3 communication protocol standards as appropriate to the needs of the membership through development and maintenance of the technical documentation necessary to facilitate interoperability of products and systems used in the utility industry based on these standards. Additionally, the DNP Users Group provides a forum in which the various stakeholders in the utility industry can work cooperatively as members of a common organization, and implements educational and promotional activities that increase awareness and deployment of the DNP3 protocol in the utility industry.
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The DNP User Group Technical Committee is an open volunteer organization of industry and technical experts from around the world. This committee actively conducts its agenda by teleconferences and holds a formal annual meeting. The Committee releases regular Technical Bulletins that are essential for any implementor. The Committee's meeting minutes and technical bulletins are available for download in the Document Library area of this web site (restricted to members).
Some major objectives of the User Group are:
- to maintain control of the protocol and determine the direction in which the protocol will migrate
- to review and add new features, functions and enhancements to the protocol
- to encourage vendors and utilities to adopt the DNP3 protocol as a "standard"
- to define recommended protocol subsets
- to develop test procedures and verification programs
- to support implementor interaction and information exchange
Active Members of the DNP3 Users Group have free access (via the Document Library of the site) to all protocol documents, document updates, technical committee bulletins and minutes, and other relevant publications and documents.
User Group members also have access to the online Discussion Forum. This service lets members post messages which can be read by all members of the Users Group and serves as a discussion area for DNP3 technical and commercial issues.