Banner’s surecross™ wireless network, Network basics, Network id – Banner SureCross DX80 Wireless Networks User Manual

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P/N 136689

Banner Engineering Corp. • Minneapolis, MN U.S.A.

www.bannerengineering.com • Tel: 763.544.3164

DX80

Reference Guide

Network Basics

Banner’s SureCross™ Wireless Network

To balance reliable communication with efficient power management, the SureCross™ wireless network uses a star network topology.

Each node within a network communicates only with the gateway, or master device. To ensure each node can reliably send and receive

data to the master device, a TDMA architecture is employed.
TDMA, or Time Division Multiple Access, architecture assigns each node, including the master device, a specific time period in which to

send and receive data .
By establishing specific intervals when

each node sends and receives data,

nodes do not conflict with each other

to send and the gateway never has to

receive data from more than one node

simultaneously .
As the network master device, the

Gateway initiates all communications

within the network . Each Node may

only communicate with the Gateway,

and only during that Node’s specific

transmit and receive timing periods .
Because the Node can send and

receive only in specific time intervals,

the Node’s power usage can be

managed efficiently, allowing Nodes

to operate from 3 .6V lithium batteries

when necessary .
Assigning send and receive times between the Gateway and Nodes involves using unique device identifiers .
Having multiple independent networks networks within range of each other requires unique network identifiers . These unique network

identifiers, or network IDs, use different FHSS hop sequences for the networks, preventing the Gateway from one network from

accidentally transmitting to a Node on another network .

Network ID

Because the radio network operates over the air, there are limited ways to electrically separate collocated networks. To keep collocated

networks separated, Banner uses a network ID number, sometimes abbreviated as NID. Each wireless network operating within radio

range is assigned a unique network ID number using the rotary dials on the DX80 devices . Up to 16

unique network identification numbers are available using the rotary dial . Additional Network IDs are

possible using advanced features of the DX80 devices .
All devices within a network are assigned the same network identification number, which defines a

unique frequency hop table. Because networks 1 and 2 use a different sequence of frequency changes,

they are not on the same frequency at the same time . This prevents communication between the

networks even when they share the same transmission medium .

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

time

Network Devices

Send and receive interval for Node 2

TDMA frame for a network of 8 devices

TDMA frame for a network of 16 devices

node 1

node 2

node 3

node 4

node 5

node 0