NPort IA5150/5250 Series User’s Manual
Choosing the Proper Operation Mode
4-4
TCP Client Mode
In
TCP Client mode
, the NPort IA5150/5250can
actively establish a TCP connection to a
pre-defined host computer when serial data
arrives.
After the data has been transferred, the NPort can
automatically disconnect from the host computer
by using the
TCP alive check time
or
Inactivity
time
settings. Refer to chapter 5 for more details.
As illustrated in the figure, data transmission
proceeds as follows:
1.
The NPort IA5150/5250 configured for TCP
Client Mode requests a connection from the
host.
2.
Once the connection is established, data can
be transmitted in both directions—from the
host to the NPort IA5150/5250, and from the
NPort IA5150/5250 to the host.
TCP Client Mode
1
Request a
connection
2
Proceed with
data transmission
TCP Client
RS-232/422/485
1
2
Device
TCP/IP
Ethernet
UDP Mode
Compared to TCP communication, UDP is faster
and more efficient. In UDP mode, you can
multicast data from the serial device to multiple
host computers, and the serial device can also
receive data from multiple host computers, making
this mode ideal for message display applications.
RS-232/422/485
Device
TCP/IP
Ethernet
Directly proceed with
data transmission
(no connection required)
UDP Mode
Pair Connection Mode
Pair Connection Mode employs two NPort IA5150/5250 units in tandem, and can be used to
remove the 15-meter distance limitation imposed by the RS-232 interface. One NPort
IA5150/5250 is connected from its RS-232 port to the COM port of a PC or other type of
computer, such as a hand-held PDA, and the serial device is connected to the RS-232 port of the
other NPort IA5150/5250. The two NPort IA5150/5250 units are then connected to each other
with a cross-over Ethernet cable, both are connected to the same LAN, or in a more advanced
setup, they communicate with each other over a WAN (i.e., through one or more routers). Pair
Connection Mode transparently transfers both data and modem control signals (although it cannot
transmit the DCD signal) between the two NPort device servers.