Intuicom Communicator
TM
User Manual
Revision A © 2001 Intuicom, Inc.
13
September 2001
Master Packet Repeat in Multipoint Systems with Repeaters
The Master Packet Repeat parameter must also be set in multipoint repeaters when they
are used in a multipoint system. In a multipoint system a repeater looks like a master to a
slave. Therefore, the repeater will send the packet out the number of times corresponding
to its Master Packet Repeat parameter. If this parameter is set improperly the reliability
of the overall system may be compromised. For example, assume the master's Master
Packet Repeat parameter is set to 3, and the link between the master and repeater is
robust. Now assume that the repeater's Master Packet Repeat is set to 0, resulting in
marginal communications between the repeater and the slaves it is communicating with.
The data communications between the master and those slaves communicating through
the repeater will be marginal, because it is only as strong as the weakest link, which in
this case is the link between the repeater and slaves.
Figure 5-1: Multipoint Parameters
5.4.3 (2) Max Slave Retry
5.4.4 (3) Retry Odds
While packets transmitted from the master to the slaves in a Multipoint network are not
acknowledged, packets transmitted from slaves to the master are. However, it is possible
that more than one slave will attempt to transmit to the master at the same time, and it is