Clear-Com HX System Frames - Manual (Page 34)

3.2 Matrix ethernet operation
The Eclipse HX-Omega, Eclipse HX-Median and Eclipse HX-Delta CPU card ethernet
ports are normally connected to a LAN and used to communicate with clients such as EHX
and Production Maestro. The ethernet port functionality depends on the IP address setup.
If an IP address of 0.0.0.0 is configured on the second ethernet port, it is not used for Tx
or Rx. This is the default setup if the default IP address is set as described above.
All matrix to matrix traffic is sent out on both ethernet ports. This applies to both directed
and broadcast packets. All matrix to matrix traffic is also received on both ethernet ports. If
the traffic is transaction related, the second (duplicate) message received is not
consumed, but simply dropped.
The matrices listen for client connections on both ethernet ports. Once the connection is
made it is added to the list of connections to service. Broadcast type Tx data is duplicated
out on each connection (for example, an HCI connection to the matrix from 3rd party
applications).
EHX makes a connection on either the main or backup ethernet port of each system in the
linked set. If both are up, this defaults to the primary port. In the event that connection is
lost to the currently active port on a matrix, EHX swaps over to using the other ethernet
port. If this connection is lost only on one matrix in a linked set, the others are not affected.
3.2.1 Configuration restrictions
The network ID on the first ethernet port must be different from that of the second port.
The network ID is defined by the IP address and the network mask for the port.
For example:
A network address of 172.16.2.1 and a mask of 255.255.0.0 give a network ID of
172.16
. Therefore in this scheme the second port could not have an IP address starting
with 172.16.
If the network mask is extended to 255.255.255.0 the network ID becomes 172.16.2.
This means that the second port could have an address of 172.16.3.1 and a mask of
255.255.255.0
, giving a network ID of 172.16.3 for the second port.
Note: If both Ethernet ports are set up with the same network ID this condition results in data
loss on one or both of the ethernet ports.
Clear-Com does not recommend Ethernet redundancy and the use of a default gateway.
An IP address and gateway combination on an ethernet port means that all Tx traffic to
any address is possible on the port. Traffic that actually matches the other ethernet port
can therefore be sent out on the wrong port.
3.3 Selecting ethernet or serial connection
EHX can communicate with a matrix using one of the following two methods:
• Ethernet connection.
• Serial connection if the EHX PC is connected directly to the matrix via an RS-232
cable.
Ethernet is the recommended connection type for all applications. Serial connections are
limited to a single matrix, have a limited range of functionality and should only be used for
backup purposes.
34 Eclipse EHX Software User Guide