User`s guide

Programming Your Instruments

Addressing Instruments

This section gives guidelines to address instruments via a LAN, USB, or

GPIB interface, including:

! Addressing Instruments via LAN

! Addressing Instruments via USB

! Addressing Instruments via GPIB

Addressing Instruments via LAN

To address instruments via the LAN, you must first configure the TCPIP LAN

Client interface using the IO Config utility. A summary of the applicable LAN

networking protocols follows. See LAN Interface Overview

for a description

of LAN hardware, software, and network protocols.

LAN Networking

Protocols

There are two LAN networking protocols provided with the Agilent IO

Libraries software. You can use one or both of these protocols when

configuring your systems to use VISA and SICL over LAN.

! SICL-LAN Protocol is a networking protocol developed by Agilent

that is compatible with all VISA LAN products. This LAN networking

protocol is the default choice in the Agilent IO Libraries configuration

when configuring the LAN client. The SICL-LAN protocol on

Windows 98/Me/2000/NT/XP Professional supports VISA operations

over LAN to GPIB interfaces.

! VXI-11 (TCP/IP Instrument Protocol) is a networking protocol

developed by the VXIbus Consortium based on the SICL-LAN

Protocol that permits interoperability of LAN software from

different vendors who meet the VXIbus Consortium standards.

When using either of these networking protocols, the LAN software uses the

TCP/IP protocol suite to pass messages between the LAN client and the

LAN server. The server accepts device I/O requests over the network from

the client and then proceeds to execute those I/O requests on a local

interface (such as LAN).