According to the new changes brought out by the smart substation, including disappearance of the traditional concept of terminal and replacement of the original point to point cable connection by optical fiber network, a new design method of GOOSE “virtual terminal” is put forward. The method contains GOOSE “virtual terminal”, virtual terminal logic connection line, GOOSE configuration table and virtual terminal information flow diagram, and solves some problems of digital protection, measurement and control device, such as without contact, no terminal, no wiring etc. of GOOSE information. The design method was applied in the engineering practice of the south of Changshu 500kV smart substation in Suzhou, and the effect of designing was very good.