Comtech EF Data CRS-400 - Manual (Page 75)

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Appendix B. REMOTE CONTROL
Introduction
EIA-485
EIA-232
Basic Protocol
Packet Structure
Remote Control Commands
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B.1 I NTRODUCTION
This section describes the protocol and message command set for remote monitor and
control of the CRS-400 Redundancy Switch.
The electrical interface is either an EIA-485 multi-drop bus (for the control of many
devices) or an EIA-232 connection (for the control of a single device), and data is
transmitted in asynchronous serial form, using ASCII characters. Control and status
information is transmitted in packets, of variable length, in accordance with the structure
and protocol defined in later sections.
B.2 EIA-485
For applications where multiple devices are to be monitored and controlled, a full-duplex
(or 4-wire plus ground) EIA-485 is required. Half-duplex (2-wire plus ground) EIA-485
is possible, but is not preferred.
In full-duplex EIA-485 communication there are two separate, isolated, independent,
differential-mode twisted pairs, each handling serial data in different directions. It is
assumed that there is a ‘controller’ device (a PC or dumb terminal), that transmits data, in
a broadcast mode, via one of the pairs. Many ‘target’ devices are connected to this pair,
that all simultaneously receive data from the controller. The controller is the only device
with a line-driver connected to this pair - the target devices only have line-receivers
connected.