ClearOne StreamNet Infrastructure and Network - Manual (Page 6)

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Physical Layer (Layer 1) - Communication technologies operate at the basic Physical Layer.
These kinds of technologies use unsophisticated protocols and basic communication techniques.
This kind of technology is most often used in point-to-point applications. Some solutions use pro-
prietary built infrastructure and routing equipment. Examples of Layer 1 solutions would be Rock-
net™, A-Net™ and EtherSound™.
data Link Layer (Layer 2) - Technologies based on the Data Link Layer allow for more robust
communications. Ethernet is based on Layer 2 and many AV networking solutions use this infra-
structure however they cannot scale beyond it. This does allow coexistence of multiple services on
the same physical connection such as audio with PC traffic.
CobraNet™ has not always been a Layer 2 solution, but has evolved to this status today. While it
pales in comparison to Internet Protocol solutions in terms of Audio and Video distribution and con-
trols and number of channels is limited, it has had arguably the most success of any of the legacy
audio network technologies.
Network Layer (Layer 3) - Layer 3 networking is the same technology as the Internet. Dante™
and StreamNet are two examples of IP based AV technologies.
StreamNet incorporates its own discovery of network devices, and fully incorporates IGMP to man-
age unnecessary networking traffic. Audio video and controls are all packetized and sent over the
network using standard IEEE 802.3 packets for most supported StreamNet stream types with the
exception of MotionXT. MotionXT is a special StreamNet stream type that utilizes jumbo packets.
Other StreamNet stream types are Stereo Audio 44.1k, Stereo Audio 48k, Mono Audio 48k, High-
bit-rate Audio, S/PDIF, Control, and Uncompressed HDAV.
The following information can be used to set up your switch infrastructure for reliable AV distribu-
tion.
STreamNeT NeTWOrkiNg CONCePTS
There are several different types of Network Topologies that can be used to configure a Switch Net-
work. Ring, Mesh, Star, Line are examples of Switch Topologies available. Of these, Star Topology is
the StreamNet recommended topology. This is due to the Network and Bandwidth Load Balancing
that needs to be considered when designing a project.
Star Topology consists of several switches connected to a central, higher-capacity switch - see
example below.