The real-time topology of the feeder is needed by the smart terminal unit (STU) to implement distributed control in a distribution network. The way the master station downloads the feeder topology information to STUs is hardly flexible in realizing autonomy. Another way is to manually configure each STU with the whole range of related feeders’ topology

but for the STU to establish real-time feeder topology after obtaining the real-time status information of switches in the related feeders

astronomical amount of configuration work needs to be done. An identification method for feeder topology based on STU successive polling is proposed. After configuring each STU with its local topology information

real-time feeder topology is obtained through STU successive polling. A distributed over-current protection using the wide area blocking signals system is set up and tested on the platform of the static simulation system for the active distribution network to show the effectiveness of the proposed feeder topology recognition method. This work is supported by National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (No. 2012AA050213).