User's Manual

Table Of Contents

5.2. Router mode

RipEX2 works as a standard IP router with multiple independent interfaces: Radio and Ethernets. Each

interface has its own MAC address, IP address and mask.

IP packets are processed according to routing table rules. You can also set the router’s default gateway

(applies to both interfaces) in the routing table.

The COM ports are treated as standard host devices, messages can be delivered to them as UDP

datagrams to selected port numbers. The destination IP address of a COM port is either the IP of an

ETH or the IP of a radio interface.

The additional Virtual COM ports and Terminal server can act as other IP router ports. This enables

Serial and TCP based RTUs to be combined in one network.

Two different Radio protocols are available in the Router mode: Base driven and Flexible.

• Base driven

This protocol is optimized for TCP/IP traffic and/or 'hidden' Remotes in report-by-exception networks,

when a Remote is not be heard by other Remotes and/or different Rx and Tx frequencies are used.

It is suitable for a star network topology with up to 255 Remotes under one Base station, where each

Remote can simultaneously work as a Repeater for one or more additional Remotes.

• Flexible

Suitable for master or even multi master-slave polling and report by exception from remotes concur-

rently. No limits in network design – each radio can work as base station, a repeater, a remote, or

all of these simultaneously

5.2.1. Router - Base driven

All traffic over the Radio channel is managed by the Base station. Radio channel access is granted by

a deterministic algorithm resulting in collision free operation regardless of the network load. Uniform

distribution of Radio channel capacity among all Remotes creates stable response times with minimum

jitter in the network.

All communication on Radio channel is controlled by the Base station; all frames inside the radio network

have to be routed through the Base station. Appropriate routing has to be set.

Base station can communicate with the Remote stations using individual modulation and FEC settings.

Any Remote can work as a Repeater for another Remote. Only one Repeater is possible between the

Base station and Remote, however a number of Remotes can use the same Repeater.

There is no need to set any routes in Routing table(s) for Remote stations located behind Repeater.

Forwarding of frames from the Base station over the Repeater in either direction is provided transparently

by the Base driven protocol.

When Remote to Remote communication is required, respective routes via the Base station must be

set in Routing tables in the Remotes.

Frame acknowledgement, retransmissions and CRC check, guarantee data delivery and integrity even

under harsh interference conditions on the Radio channel.

RipEX2 in detail