Network interfaces overview, Standard and high performance network interfaces – Echelon LNS User Manual
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LNS Programmer's Guide
266
Network Interfaces Overview
Each Network Service Device contains a network interface. The Network Service Device
uses the network interface to communicate with the L
ON
W
ORKS
network, as the network
interfaces provides the physical connection between the network and the LNS Server.
Each network interface uses LonTalk messaging to communicate with the L
ON
W
ORKS
network and the devices on the network.
This chapter contains information you will need when choosing a network interface. This
includes the following sections:
• Standard and High Performance Network Interfaces. This section introduces the
network interfaces that are commonly used with LNS. Some of these network
interfaces (Layer 5 network interfaces) are considered standard network
interfaces, and others (Layer 2 network interfaces) are considered high
performance network interfaces. This section describes the functional differences
between standard network interfaces and high performance network interfaces.
• Using xDriver Interfaces. This section provides details on network interfaces that
use the OpenLDV xDriver software to communicate with L
ON
W
ORKS
networks,
such as the
i
.LON 10 Ethernet Adapter and the
i
.LON 100 Internet Server. The
OpenLDV xDriver software is installed with the LNS Server software during the
LNS Turbo Edition installation.
• Using LONWORKS/IP Interfaces. You can configure a TCP/IP network card as
an LNS high performance network interface, and use it to connect to a network
via a L
ON
W
ORKS
/IP channel. In order to do so, you will need one or more
L
ON
W
ORKS
/IP channels connected by at least one L
ON
W
ORKS
router, such as an
i.
LON 1000 Internet Server or an
i.
LON 600 L
ON
W
ORKS
/IP Server. To use a
TCP/IP card as an LNS network interface, you need to create a L
ON
W
ORKS/IP
Interface device to represent the network card. You can do so with the
L
ON
W
ORKS
/IP tab of the L
ON
W
ORKS
Interfaces application in the Windows
Control Panel. You will also need to define the LNS PC as a member of the
L
ON
W
ORKS
/IP channel. This section describes how you can do so. L
ON
W
ORKS
/IP
Interfaces implement the ANSI/CEA-852 layer 3 routing protocol.
• Network Interfaces and Network Service Devices. This section describes the ways
a network interface might affect the performance of your Network Service Device.
Standard and High Performance Network Interfaces
An LNS network interface consists of two parts: the network interface hardware component,
and the network interface software driver. The network interfaces you can use with LNS
Turbo Edition are listed below. You can find more detailed information about these network
interfaces on Echelon’s website at:
PCLTA-20
The PCLTA-20 is a standard PCI card. There are
four versions of the card that include an onboard
transceiver (TP/FT-10, TP/XF-78, TP/XF-1250 or
TP-RS485), and one version that accepts a
standard modular transceiver (SMX) which may
be used with any media type for which an SMX
transceiver exists. The PCLTA-20 supports the