User's Manual

Rajant Corporation BreadCrumb® ME4 v11 User Guide
03-100126-011 Version 11.0.0
4 Deploying a BreadCrumb Mesh Network
There are many factors which need to be taken into account when deploying a BreadCrumb mesh
network. Section 4.1 describes the addressing scheme of the mesh. Section 4.2 discusses channel
assignments. Section 4.3 details some of the most commonly occurring environmental factors that will
have a major impact on the performance of the mesh. Finally, section 4.4 details guidelines and
methodology needed to follow when deploying the mesh.
4.1 Addressing
When in gateway mode or when using its own embedded DHCP servers, the BreadCrumb mesh requires
that wireless devices use IPv4 addresses in the Class A network 10.0.0.0/8 (that is, any address that
begins with ‘10.’). If you are not connected to another network, or if you are bridging to one rather than
routing to it, your wireless client devices may have any address whatsoever.
Note
Any computers running the BC|Commander management application must have an
address in the same range as the BreadCrumbs they manage. Refer to the
BC|Commander v11 User Guide document for the details of the BreadCrumb IP address
configuration.
4.1.1 BreadCrumb Device Addresses
Each BreadCrumb radio has one IPv4 address in the Class A network 10.0.0.0/8. Rajant ensures during
manufacturing that the default addresses are not duplicated between any two BreadCrumb devices.
Addresses assigned to BreadCrumb devices can be viewed using BC|Commander. They can be
configured manually, or set to DHCP.
4.1.2 DHCP
Each BreadCrumb device includes an embedded DHCP server. You may safely enable the DHCP servers
of multiple BreadCrumb devices simultaneously, and it is in fact the most common case that all
BreadCrumb devices in a mesh run DHCP servers. Address conflicts among DHCP clients are prevented
by using the unique BreadCrumb device addresses assigned at the factory as a base.
A BreadCrumb device determines its DHCP range as follows:
● Start with the first three bytes of the first radio’s IPv4 address.
● Add a low-byte range of 10 to 210.
4.2 Channel Assignments
BreadCrumb radios have default channels assigned, based on the frequency of the radio. See Table 3 for
a list of available radios and their default channel assignments.
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