Electro-Voice System Controller NetMax N8000 - Manual (Page 35)

Appendix
35
NetMax N8000 System Controller
Owner’s manual
For example, a network could e.g. split the 4 Byte (32 bit) of an IP address in a 3 Byte long
network part and in 1 Byte long host part. The exact partitioning between network part and host
part is given in the form of subnet masks. In this case, the partitioning of the first 24 bits or the
last 8 bits would be made because of the subnet mask 255.255.255.0.
The CIDR notation which is designed to display a subnet mask is an alternative to the dotted
decimal notation. So called suffixes are used in the CIDR notation. The suffix indicates the
number of 1-bits in the subnet mask. Thus, the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 in dotted decimal
notation would correspond to the suffix /24 as the first 24 places (in binary description) of an IP
address are chosen as network address.
It is possible to impact the maximum number of the devices addressable within a network by
choosing the subnet mask which results in different partitioning of the IP address in network part
and in host part. For the exact number it has to be considered that the host part may neither be
completely zero nor completely 1 in the binary description.
Example: In case of the above-mentioned example IP address 130.9.122.195 the network part
would be 130.9.122.0 by using the subnet mask 255.255.255.0. So, each device (or interface) in
the considered network uses an address of the type 130.9.122.DDD. As the values 00000000
and 11111111 are excluded for the host part DDD in binary description, the corresponding
decimal values 1 to 254 for DDD are allowed. Thus, a maximum of 254 different devices can be
addressed in a network and the corresponding addresses are 130.9.122.1 to 130.9.122.254.
Automatic/Manual Allocation of IP Addresses
IP addresses can be allocated both automatically and manually to a device in a network. If the
address is allocated automatically via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), the
operation of a DHCP server in the network is necessary. This server makes it possible to
dynamically allocate an IP address and additional configuration parameter to hosts in a network.
The use of a DHCP server is especially useful for networks in which devices are often connected
and removed.
If DHCP is used, certain incidents (e.g. the reboot of a device) can result in the change of the IP
address of this device. If this device is a N8000 system controller, its configuration in IRIS-Net
has to be modified to reflect the changed IP address. For that reason it is not advisable to use
DHCP for the dynamic configuration of N8000. Instead, of that the network configuration of the
N8000 should be done manually.
When a new Ethernet network which will not be connected to the Internet is established, any
network part of the IP addresses can be defined. By choosing the appropriate subnet mask it is
possible to adapt the number of the addressable devices to your requirements.
Please contact your network administrator regarding details on the correct network
configurations if one or several N8000 is/are integrated in an existing Ethernet network (with or
without DHCP server) or if the network is connected to the Internet.