B&B Electronics ESR901 - Manual (Page 13)

Introduction
Manual Documentation Number ESR90x-0508m Chapter 1 3
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Communication Modes
The
ESR90x Serial servers
enable communication with serial devices over a
LAN or WAN. Serial devices no longer are limited to a physical connection
to the PC COM port. They can be installed anywhere on the LAN using
TCP/IP or UDP/IP communications. This allows traditional Windows PC
software access to serial devices anywhere on the LAN/WAN network.
Direct IP Mode
Direct IP
connections allow applications using TCP/IP or UDP/IP socket
programs to communicate with the asynchronous serial ports on the serial
server. In this type of application the serial server is configured as a TCP or
UDP server. The socket program running on the PC establishes a
communication connection with the
Serial Server
. The data is sent directly
to and from the serial port on the server. When using UDP protocol the
server can be configured to broadcast data to and receive data from multiple
IP addresses.
Virtual COM Mode
Install Virtual COM Mode
allows the user to add a driver, to provide a virtual
COM port on the computer. The new COM port shows up in the Device
Manager. Windows programs using standard Windows API calls are able to
interface to virtual COM ports. When a program on the PC opens the new
COM port, it communicates with the remote serial device connected to one
of the ports on the
Serial Server .
After connection, the LAN is transparent to the program and serial device.
Applications are able to work just as if the serial device is connected directly
to a physical COM port on the computer. The virtual COM port software
converts the application’s data into IP packets, sends it across the network to
the
Serial Server
, which converts the IP packet back to serial data and sends
the data out a serial port located on the
Serial Server
.
To use this mode, the
Serial Server
must be set to either TCP/server or
UDP/server with a designated communication port number. The virtual COM
driver is the TCP or UDP client.
Paired Mode
Paired Mode
is also called serial tunneling. In this mode any two serial
devices that can communicate with a serial link will be able to communicate
using two
Serial Servers
and the LAN.