■
Operating Mode
List box: Bridge, Router
Default = Bridge
Operating mode defines whether the RipEX unit acts as a simple transparent device (Bridge mode)
or Ethernet router (Router mode).
Bridge
Bridge mode is suitable for Point-to-Multipoint networks, where Master-Slave application with
polling-type communication protocol is used. RipEX in Bridge mode is as easy to use as a simple
transparent device, while allowing a reasonable level of communication reliability and spectrum
efficiency in small to medium size networks.
In Bridge mode, the protocol on the Radio channel does not have collision avoidance capability.
There is CRC check of data integrity, i.e. once a message is delivered, it is 100% error free.
All the messages received from user interfaces (ETH&COM) are immediately transmitted to
Radio channel, without any checking or processing.
ETH: The whole network of RipEX units behaves like a standard Ethernet network bridge, so
the Ethernet interface IP address itself is not significant. Each ETH interface automatically learns
which devices (MAC addresses) lie in the local LAN and which devices are accessible via the
Radio channel. Consequently only the Ethernet frames addressed to remote devices are phys-
ically transmitted on the Radio channel. This arrangement saves RF spectrum from extra load
which would otherwise be generated by local traffic in the LAN (the LAN to which the respective
ETH interface is connected).
COM1, COM2: all frames received from COM1(2) are broadcast over Radio channel and
transmitted to all COM ports (COM1 as well as COM2) on all units within the network, the other
COM on the source RipEX excluding.
Router
Router mode is suitable for Multipoint networks. Two different Radio protocols (
Flexible
and
Base driven
) are available to offer best performance dependent on type of application. These
protocols can transmit both unicast and broadcast frames. They have collision avoidance cap-
ability, use frame acknowledgement and retransmissions, a CRC check to guarantee data delivery
and integrity, even under harsh interference conditions on the Radio channel.
RipEX works as a standard IP router with 2 independent interfaces: Radio and ETH. Each inter-
face has its own MAC address, IP address and Mask.
IP packets are processed according to the Routing table. There is also a possibility to set a
router Default gateway (applies to both interfaces) in the Routing table.
The COM ports are treated in the same way as router devices, messages can be delivered to
them as UDP datagrams to selected port numbers. Destination IP address of COM port is either
the IP of ETH or the IP of Radio interfaces.
95
© RACOM s.r.o. – RipEX Radio modem & Router
Advanced Configuration
Summary of Contents for RipEX
Page 2: ......