Aviat Networks ECLIPSE EDGE, User Manual

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16 Aviat Networks
Chapter 4. Eclipse Edge Configuration and Diagnostics
Portal IP Address Auto-Discovery Mechanism
As its name suggests, this mechanism is designed to discover the IP address of the
terminal your Portal PC is connected to. For Eclipse Edge it is particularly valuable
in situations where its DHCP server function has been turned off and you do not
know its IP address to establish a TCP/IP connection.
Note that the IP address of an Edge terminal can also be discovered using its
front-panel reset button. For details, refer to Temporary DHCP Connection.
Operation
On connection to the radio NMS interface, Portal broadcasts a UDP discovery packet.
The directly connected radio and any other radios on the local LAN respond with
their IP address and radio name. These are listed in the connect-to list in the Portal
start-up window, and carry a green tick to confirm detection by Portal. This occurs
even if your Portal PC and the radio you are connected to, do not have
non-overlapping IP addresses and netmasks.
If your PC is set to obtain an IP address automatically from a DHCP server, and there
is no DHCP server set on the radio you are connected to, or on any other radio in the
local NMS LAN, auto discovery will respond, but only after a few minutes have
elapsed.
• With no DHCP server, the network connection application on you PC will time-out
and display a warning event: “Local Area Connection: This connection has little or no
connectivity. You may not be able to access the Internet or some network resources.”
• At this point, Portal auto discovery will operate. This is enabled by the PC assigning
itself an automatic private IP address (APIPA) within the network range of
169.254.0.0, mask 255.255.0.0, which is valid for the auto discovery mechanism.
When a radio from the list is selected, a connection packet is sent from the PC to the
radio, at which point the radio responds with a temporary route to the PC. However,
unless the PC is configured on the same network as the radio, the PC will not be able
to establish communications with the radio. At this point the TCP/IP properties of
the PC must be set so that the PC is seen as a host on the radio LAN. Refer to
Setting
Up A TCP/IP Ethernet Portal Connection on page 11
.
In most instances, because the network address on the Portal PC and on the radio will
not be the same, the auto-discovery mechanism is used to discover the IP address of
the radio, followed by the setting of a LAN compatible TCP/IP setting on your Portal
PC.
Where their are multiple radios on the local LAN (two or more radios inter-connected
by their NMS ports), auto-discovery will return the IP address and terminal name for
all radios.
Where it is not apparent which of the radios in the connect-to list is the
physically-connected radio, it can be isolated by temporarily disconnecting the NMS
cable(s) to the other radio(s).
Information on the subnet mask of the connected radio is not returned by
auto-discovery. When entering the auto-discovered IP address of a radio in the Portal
PC TCP/IP settings, and the subnet mask is not known, it may be deduced from the
address. Bear in mind that in most instances a class C address range will be used,
even where a class A or B address range is indicated. These will be sub-netted for class