Campbell Scientific PakBus Networking Guide - Manual (Page 5)

PakBus Networking Guide
1. Introduction
PakBus® describes a proprietary family of protocols created by Campbell
Scientific, Inc. for communication between connected devices. Similar in
many ways to TCP/IP, PakBus is a packet-switched network protocol with
routing capabilities.
These data communication packets contain a header, a message body, and an
error-checking segment. The header of the packet describes where the packet
came from, where it is going and what type of information can be expected in
the message body. The message body contains the data being sent from one
device to another. In addition, the packet is checked for errors to ensure that it
has been transmitted without corruption.
PakBus protocol uses the basic elements of packet-switched communication to
form packets when communicating between devices on a network. Some
advantages of using PakBus communication between devices include the
following:
• Network communication path auto-discovery capabilities
• Simple datalogger to datalogger communication
• Concurrent communication with devices
Additional information about these specific advantages along with a more
detailed description of the PakBus protocol will be presented in this document.
2. PakBus Network Terminology
When discussing PakBus networks there are several common terms that are
used. Learning the following terms will help increase understanding of PakBus
protocol. These terms will be discussed and used in greater detail later in this
document.
Allowed Neighbor List: An allowed neighbor list sets up a list of neighbors
with which a device will communicate. If a device address is entered in the
allowed neighbor list, a hello exchange will be initiated with that device. Any
device with an address between 1 and 3999 that is not entered in the allowed
neighbor list will be filtered from communicating with the device using the list.
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