CLX produced/consumed tags banging network ethernet

[mncarmack]

Hi All, I have two compactloxic controllers communicating with each other over ethernet. both are producing and consuming tags from one to the other. Everything works great, but IT tells me they are banging the network, he says they are both trying to connect to some besar ip addresses that are nowhere around. Not sure what to do, again, the communication between the two is working very well.
Thanks for any help

 

[Ken Roach]

Isn't it fun to mystify the IT department ?

Those funny-looking IP addresses are Multicast group addresses.

All I/O type connections in Rockwell EtherNet/IP systems, including Produced/Consumed Tags, use UDP Multicast addressing so that multiple devices can consume the data at the same time.

Usually, a managed switch running a feature called IGMP Snooping will learn which devices need to see the multicast traffic and constrain it from flooding to the other ports on the switch.

In your particular case where you only have two controllers doing Produced/Consumed Tags, you can set them up to use Unicast addressing that won't flood out of an unconfigured or unmanaged switch.

There's a good overview of these mechanisms in the "Ethernet Modules in RSLogix 5000 Control Systems" manual, ENET-UM001.

 

[Alan Case]

As a quick bit of info, I am sure that unicast is only an option on the later versions of RSLogix5000. I may be wrong and if I am I am sure I will be corrected.
Regards Alan Case

 

[Ken Roach]

Alan is right on; Unicast Produced/Consumed Tags are an option only in v16 and higher.

Knowbase Article ID # 41596.

 

[mncarmack]

Isn't it fun to mystify the IT department ?

Those funny-looking IP addresses are Multicast group addresses.

All I/O type connections in Rockwell EtherNet/IP systems, including Produced/Consumed Tags, use UDP Multicast addressing so that multiple devices can consume the data at the same time.

Usually, a managed switch running a feature called IGMP Snooping will learn which devices need to see the multicast traffic and constrain it from flooding to the other ports on the switch.

In your particular case where you only have two controllers doing Produced/Consumed Tags, you can set them up to use Unicast addressing that won't flood out of an unconfigured or unmanaged switch.

There's a good overview of these mechanisms in the "Ethernet Modules in RSLogix 5000 Control Systems" manual, ENET-UM001.

The Unicast, does that just apply the produced/consumed tags? because these plc's are also talking to other applications.

 

[Freddie]

The Unicast, does that just apply the produced/consumed tags? because these plc's are also talking to other applications.

You have to choose Unicast while configuring the Produce/Consumer link . This means, you are able to configure each Produce/Consumer tag individually. Other applications are not influenced.

 

[mncarmack]

Great, thanks for the help

 

[mncarmack]

You have to choose Unicast while configuring the Produce/Consumer link . This means, you are able to configure each Produce/Consumer tag individually. Other applications are not influenced.

I upgraded to 16 and I see where you can configure each Produced/Consumed tag individually, but see nothing about seting up a Produce/Consumer Link. Could you tell me where I would find this?
Thanks