Cocoon POWERTALK 101 - Manual (Page 11)

PowerTALK 101
10
Functional overview of PowerTALK 101
PowerTALK 101 is a network protocol converter, one unit having at least a serial port and an
Ethernet port. All PowerTALK 101 models utilise the TCP/IP protocol suite for communication and
configuration.
PowerTALK 101 uses UDP broadcast packets to effectively combine a campus wide Ethernet
network into one virtual RS-232 multi-drop network. Each port on each PowerTALK 101 device is
assigned to a virtual
channel, and all data received on this port will be transmitted into this
channel, and all other ports connected to this channel, will receive all data traffic. UDP broadcast
packets will normally not be carried by routers and bridges, and can only be used on a single or
virtual segment.
PowerTALK 101B additionally has UDP peer to peer routed packets for one-to-one
communication. PowerTALK 101C also adds TCP peer to peer connections, for one-to-one
communication over unreliable and changing links.
PowerTALK 101 / 101B / 101C Data UDP broadcast single virtual segment
PowerTALK 101 / 101B / 101C Configuration UDP peer to peer across router
PowerTALK 101B / 101C Data UDP peer to peer across router
PowerTALK 101C Data TCP peer to peer across router, advanced