User's Manual

9
5.2 Mesh Addressing
The FM units have two modes of operation which are used to develop mesh network architectures:
• Mesh Point Mode
• Mesh End Mode
Mesh Point Mode: it is the default mode for the FM unit. Each unit in the field that is not
connected to the wired LAN backbone must be set in Mesh Point Mode.
Mesh End Mode: in the Fluidmesh network, an FM unit that is connected to the main wired LAN
must be set in Mesh End Mode. The Mesh End unit is the junction point between the wireless
network and any IP-based wired network.
Regardless of its configuration, any FM unit comes from the factory with a unique unit ID with the
following format:
5.a.b.c
where the triplet (a,b,c) unambiguously identifies the unit and cannot be changed. The unit ID is
used to identify the units throughout the Web-based Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Figure 5.2: Fluidmesh Network Addressing
5.2.1 Network Addressing
The Fluidmesh layer 2 addressing allows configuring each FM unit and each device connected
to the FM units according to the IP address class used within the private LAN to which the Mesh
End unit is connected. A sample network configuration is shown in Figure 5.2.
The Fluidmesh network logically becomes part of the private LAN where (usually) the control
room resides. Therefore, both the FM units and any other edge device should be provided with a
private LAN IP address and will be accessed through that specified IP address.
Consider the example depicted in Figure 5.2 where the private LAN IP ad- dress class is
192.168.150.0 with netmask 255.255.255.0. Each device is configured with an IP address
belonging to this class. Please note that each IP address must be univocal within the entire