Introduction 6201-WA-DFNT
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ProLinx Wireless
High Speed Wireless EtherNet/IP Gateway
ProSoft Technology, Inc.
Page 7 of 45
August 12, 2008
1.3
About Transmission Casts
The sample uses a UNICAST transmission type. UNICAST means that you set
up Produce and Consume Commands that transfer or receive data between two
individual modules. For example, a Produce command can specify that this data
is only produced to one particular consuming module based on the consuming
modules IP address.
In addition to UNICAST, you also have the flexibility of using MULTICAST (data
sent to multiple modules in a MULTICAST Group List but only picked up by the
module within that list with a Consume command that has the matching
Exchange ID and the IP address of the module multicasting the command), and
BROADCAST which sends data out to all modules. With BROADCAST, each
module receives the transmission whether it be two modules or 50 modules.
Each module receiving the BROADCAST has to check every message to
determine if it is intended for the module or not. This can decrease performance
times since the module may be checking hundreds of messages that are not
intended for it.
Use MULTICAST to limit the modules that should receive the message. For
example, five modules may be part of a MULTICAST Group, yet there may be 15
modules on the network. Only five of the 15 modules on the network will be
configured to handle certain types of commands while the remaining 10 that are
not in the MULTICAST group will ignore the messages not intended for them.
