Campbell Scientific PakBus Networking Guide - Manual (Page 7)

PakBus Networking Guide
Routing Table: A list of the most direct routes between nodes on the network.
Routers calculate the most direct path between nodes based on the hop metrics
of the available routes.
Source Address: The PakBus address of the node sending the packet.
Verify Interval (Communication Verification Interval or CVI): The
interval at which communication must occur between established neighbors to
maintain the list of known neighbor routes. If no communication has taken
place during the specified interval a hello exchange is initiated. A verify
interval of zero causes the device to use a default verify interval of 2.5 times
the beacon interval. If the beacon interval is also zero, the default verify
interval is five minutes.
3. PakBus Concepts
PakBus dataloggers rely on a proprietary packet-switched communication
protocol referred to as PakBus. Formalized packets are used for
communication.
3.1 Protocol Description
Like other types of packet switched communication protocols such as TCP/IP,
PakBus protocol packets contain a header, a message body, and an error
checking segment.
The header contains specific information that facilitates the transfer of packets
between devices. Along with other details, the header of a PakBus protocol
packet includes the address of the device that initiated the packet (source
address), the address of the device where the packet is being sent (destination
address), and a declaration of the type of packet being sent. PakBus devices on
the network look at the source and destination addresses in the header to
determine if a packet is meant for them and to determine where a reply
message should be sent. The packet type declaration in the header describes
the data contained within the body of the packet.
The body or message portion of the packet contains structured information
based on the packet type declared in the header. The receiving device uses the
packet type declaration to read the message data.
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