User's Manual

pulsAR radio Operator’s Manual
4-7
half vs full duplex setting. The auto setting negotiates both the speed and duplex to the fastest
configuration supported by the other device on the Ethernet. With this setting the radio also
detects and crosses over the Tx and Rx signal pairs, if necessary.
You can also turn off the ethernet port, but only if your command session is over the console
port, or remotely over an RF link. This can be useful for test purposes if you suspect that you
created a loop in the network and want to shut down this port without turning off the radio.
timeout-sec=5..10000
Sets the time the radio will retain Ethernet addresses obtained from the network.
multi-cast-timeout-sec=5..10000
Sets the time the radio will retain Ethernet multi-cast addresses obtained from the network. This
can not be set to a value below the station-timeout.
Examples:
> ethernet speed=10fdx timeout=100
node
type=hub or remote or root-1 or root-2 or branch or leaf
For a point-to-point network configure one of the two radios as the hub and the other as the
remote. At the hub also set the max-children parameter to 1, which optimizes the network for
point-to-point.
For a point-to-multipoint network configure the central radio as the hub and all other radios as
remote. In a fixed installation you would typically deploy the remote radios with directional
antennas pointing at the hub radio.
In a tree network configure the central radio as the root. Use root-1 if you have a single
antenna at the root. You may also deploy a root with two antennas on ports A and B in which
case use root-2.
In a tree network all other nodes must be configured as either branch or leaf. A branch node
will attempt to connect to a parent (which can be the root or another branch) using the rf-1
configuration. It will also be acting as a parent and serve as an access point using the rf-2
configuration.
A leaf node will attach to the parent (root or branch) using the rf-1 configuration.
When you attempt to configure a node to be a branch or a root the radio may indicate that it is
not authorized to operate in that mode. In that case contact Afar to purchase a key to operate
the radio in the tree topology.
max-children=1..32
At the hub, root or branch nodes this value specifies the maximum number of children that will
be allowed to join the network through this access point. Once the radio has the maximum
children specified it stops allocating a slot for new nodes to join the network. This improves
the inbound throughput slightly, specially if the number of children is small. It also prevents an