PowerGrid DH-10P Powerline Ethernet Adapter User’s Manual Version A1.0.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO THE USER COMTREND PROVIDES THIS MANUAL “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT.
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Table of Contents IMPORTANT NOTICE TO THE USER...................................................................................................2 SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.......................................................................................................................3 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................5 2 How to Use This Manual ....................................................
1 Introduction This document describes the configuration of COMTREND’s in-home PLC adapters PowerGrid DH-10P with Spirit 2.2 using the Web interface. The scope of this document is to describe the configuration of the available parameters as well as give a basic introduction to their function. It is intended as a guide for configuration only; no advanced description of the functionalities available is given.
3 In-Home Scenarios 3.1 Adapter Installation The installation of the adapter is straightforward; simply plug the adapter into the electrical outlet and connect your PC or any other equipment to it. However, to optimize the performance of your PLC network you should take care to: • • Plug the adapter directly into the wall outlet; Not to use extension cords or power strips with the adapter. The following subsections give some examples of recommended and NOT recommended installation scenarios. 3.1.
3.1.2 “Good” Adapter Installation Scenarios Figure 2 and Figure 3 are examples of recommended PLC adapter installations. Figure 2: Example 1 of a “Good” Installation Scenario 1 of a “Good” Installation Scenario Figure 3: Example 2 of a “Good” Installation Scenario: Adapter with filter (DW10P) GOOD! Power Strip Printer, etc.
3.2 Using PLC Filters A PLC filter is a low-pass filter that will only allow the 50/60 Hz mains voltage through; the PLC signal will be blocked as well as “noise” in higher frequencies. Below is an example of when to use such a filter: • Filtering noisy appliances The filter can be used to filter the noise produced by electrical appliances. Examples of equipment that might affect the adapter’s performance are computer, printer, mobile phone, or any other electrical appliances in general.
Figure 5 shows a simple PLC solution where two adapters are used to make the Internet access connection available in the electrical outlets of the home. This is a simple network with only two adapters and only data traffic, where CoS probably would not be required. Figure 6: Mixed Data-Video PLC Network Figure 6 shows a more advanced PLC network with three adapters. Internet access and digital video are delivered through the ADSL/cable line and distributed inside the home using PLC.
4.2 Adapter Default Settings 4.3 Web Page Password Enabled (default password: paterna) IP Static (10.10.1.69) Subnet Mask 255.255.0.0 MAC Mode Automatic In-Home AV Service Classifier Disabled Traffic Classifier Disabled Factory Reset Password betera Network ID Public Encryption None Identifying Adapter Chip Type: DSS9010 or DSS9001 The adapters come with an identification code on the cover.
3. Open the Web browser and type the following URL: http://10.10.1.69. A Web page similar to the one in Figure 7 will appear; Figure 7: Web Configuration: Authentication Page 4. In the Password field, type in the default password (paterna) and click the OK button.
The Main page shows an overview of all visible adapters in the Available Connections section. The connection speeds to any other adapters with direct visibility to the adapter to which you are connected can be seen here. See Section 4.5: Checking Powerline Network Performance for more information regarding the PLC Connections menu; 5. Click on Change configuration and a new page will appear (Figure 9). This page allows you to change the configuration of the adapter; Figure 9: Change Configuration Page 6.
8. Unplug (or reboot) the adapter, plug in another adapter and go back to Step 2. NOTES: • • • • Setting the IP: A different IP must be set for each of the adapters that will work on the same network. Only the PC accessing the configuration page of the adapters must have the same address range as the adapters; Netmask: The netmask can also be changed, for example to a type C (255.255.255.
Figure 12: Local and Remote Nodes Home Electrical Wiring Local MODEM 1 Remote MODEM 2 Desktop PC Perform the following steps to change NIDs: 1. Plug all adapters into the powerline. Make sure that all powerline adapters are connected. If you are having problems with connectivity between the adapters, please refer to Section 4.5: Checking Powerline Network Performance; 2. Connect to the Web page of one of the remote powerline adapters; 3. Go to the Change Configuration menu; 4.
Figure 13: Main Page: PLC Connection The PLC Connection section contains six headers: PLC Port An internal value for the adapter to handle the different connections. MAC Address The MAC address of the connected adapter. Phy Tx Throughput The powerline throughput in Mbps from the local adapter to the remote adapter. Phy Rx Throughput The powerline throughput in Mbps from the remote adapter to the local adapter.
Figure 14: Change Configuration Page: MAC Configuration Section 5.2 Setting Advanced Security Triple-DES (3DES) encryption of the data transmission between adapters can be enabled by specifying an Encryption Key in the Encryption Key field in the MAC Configuration section. Encryption can be configured only if the NID of the adapter is not the public, otherwise malfunctions can occur. 5.2.1 Enabling Triple-DES Encryption To enable Triple-DES encryption, perform the following steps: 1.
After you have changed the encryption key of the local adapter, you will recover communication with all of the powerline adapters. If you want to disable 3DES encryption, repeat the same steps above leaving the Encryption Key field empty. 5.3 Configuration of PLC Notches If the adapter is running in an environment where it can cause interference with amateur radio reception, spectral masking can be enabled.
5.6 Multicast Traffic Configuration The new IGMP Aware Multicast Syndication feature included in Spirit 2.0 can be enabled via the form shown in Figure 17. This feature is only available in private networks and end points. Figure 17: Web Configuration: Multicast Configuration By default, if IGMP is disabled in every EP, multicast traffic is sent to all devices in the PLC network by duplicating packets. In the example in Figure 18, a multicast stream using the IP 224.1.1.
5.6.1 Enable IGMP Aware Multicast Syndication To enable IGMP Aware Multicast Syndication in an EP connected to the STB perform the following steps: 1. A Network ID should have been assigned to the PLC network (see section 4.4.2); 2. The modem connected to the backbone (i.e. Modem 1 from Figure 18 connected to ADSL adapter) should be defined as a Fixed AP (see Section 5.1); 3. Enable IGMP Aware Multicast Syndication in the adapter connected to STB (i.e.
For the rules we can set two priorities: LOW (minimum of throughput) and HIGH (maximum of throughput). For LOW criteria: The LOW rule is not applied when: the traffic doesn’t fulfill the criteria. The LOW rule is applied when: the traffic fulfilled the criteria. In this case is the traffic almost suspended. For HIGH criteria: The HIGH rule is not applied when: the traffic doesn’t fulfill the criteria. The HIGH rule is applied when: the traffic fulfilled the criteria.
5.8.2 Service Classifier Example – Prioritization for VoIP Application nad VNC Server Criterion 1 (prioritization for the application “VNC Server”) Protocol – TCP with Port Origin Port - 5900 Prioritization – High Criterion 2 (prioritization for outgoing VoIP traffic) Protocol – UDP Prioritization – High This configuration is necessary to do at the PLC adapter near to the PC with the VoIP traffic and installed application “VNC Server”.
5.10 Factory Reset – Resetting the Adapter to Default Values The factory reset will return the adapter to the original configuration (as described in Section 4.2). A remote factory reset can also be done using the L2 tool; for more information please see COMTREND’s L2 Configuration Tool User Guide document. A specific password is required to perform a factory reset. The password is betera. To perform a factory reset, type the password in the Factory Reset field and click the OK button.
The characteristics of the firmware adapter shown in Figure 21 (spirit_dh10p_9010_v2_s2_0_0_cvs) are: Platform Type dh10p Chip Type 9010 HW version V2 Firmware Type 2_0_0 Clock Speed (ONLY DU100) When not specified it is 160 MHz. clkint80 Æ 80 MHz 5.11.2 Selecting Firmware File for Upgrade The firmware files for the upgrade have the same format as the file specified in the System Information section.
5.11.3 Performing a Firmware Upgrade Follow the steps below to upgrade the adapter’s firmware: 1. Open the Quick ‘n Easy FTP Server (see Section 5.11). This application has the GUI shown in Figure 22; Figure 22: FTP User Interface 2. Place the image file in the directory specified in the Configuration section or change it to point to the location where the image is stored; 3. Open the Web browser and enter the IP of the adapter to be upgraded; 4. When the page opens, click Change configuration; 5.
6. Click OK to start the process. Progress information is shown on the Web page every 30 seconds. This process may take up to five minutes. To refresh the Web page more frequently use the refresh button of your Web browser; 7. The adapter will first download the file and then calculate the CRC; 8. If the CRC is correct, the Hardware Reset button will be highlighted; 9. Reset the adapter. The adapter must be reset for the new firmware to run.
6 Appendix A: Optimizing TCP throughput in Windows By default, Windows are optimized for Ethernet connections. As with ADSL or cable adapters, you will not achieve maximum TCP performance with the PLC adapter unless you apply some changes to the default maximum TCP window size of your operating system (OS). In order to achieve maximum throughput performance in a PLC network some changes are necessary in the OS register. Please follow the steps below to apply the required changes to your Windows OS.
The system is now optimized for transmission of TCP over networks with slightly higher latencies than Ethernet. The maximum TCP window size has been changed to 128 KB.
7 Abbreviations The following is a list of abbreviations used in this manual.
