Specifications

MBX Bridge Help
Cyberlogic Technologies Inc. - 10 -
A typical MBX Bridge system is shown in the illustration above. The MBX Bridge Suite is
installed on the PC and uses its network adapters and ports to route messages among
the different networks. In this example, we will use static routing, so routing records
configured in the bridge software tell it how to pass the messages.
Suppose that the Quantum controller on the Ethernet network must communicate to the
984 on the Modbus Plus network. The Quantum unit would send its message to the
bridge, which would receive it through its Ethernet MBX device (referred to as the source
device). The routing record would tell the bridge how to use the IP address and
Destination Index of the message to determine the proper final destination for the
message, in this case, a particular node on the Modbus Plus network. The bridge would
then send the message out through the MBX device associated with the PCI-85 module
(called the destination device), with the appropriate Modbus Plus routing array for the
desired 984 controller.
In the same way, the response message will be routed from the 984 back to the
Quantum controller. Furthermore, the routing records can be configured to allow
communication to and from the Modbus network. They can also send messages through
bridges and routers to other layers of compatible networks.
Messages received from a given network may need to be routed to any one of two or
more different destination networks, using different routing records. The bridge must be
able to determine which routing record should be used for a given message. To do this,
each routing record includes a source filter that allows the bridge to decide if that routing
record should be used for a particular message. If the message matches the filter
criteria, that record is used to route it to its destination, otherwise the remaining routing
records are tried until a match is found. If no routing records match, the bridge returns
an error response to the node that originated the message.
MBX Bridge Routing Records
The MBX Bridge functions as a message router between MBX-compatible devices. It can
route both data (Data Slave) and programming (Program Slave) messages. Data Slave
messages are automatically routed to Data Master Paths while Program Slave messages
are routed to Program Master Paths.