Echelon OpenLDV User Manual download pdf (Page 11)

OpenLDV Programmer’s Guide 3

Client Applications

OpenLDV applications, such as the LNS Server and the LonScanner Protocol

Analyzer, use the OpenLDV application programming interface (API) to

communicate with L

ONWORKS network interfaces.

Echelon’s LNS software provides a high-level interface to L

ONWORKS networks

that simplifies managing network interfaces. The LNS software is a powerful,

flexible network management platform you can use with high-performance

Layer-2 or Layer-5 network interfaces, as well as with IP-852 routers (such as

the i.LON 600 or SmartServer). The LNS Server provides a wide variety of

network management and monitor and control services, and allows multiple

client access to the same network interface.

For most customers, choosing the LNS software platform will result in a high-

quality application that can be developed more quickly, requiring less knowledge

of low-level details, than with other network management platforms, including

the OpenLDV platform. However, the OpenLDV API provides a low-level

interface for writing Windows based L

ONWORKS software for use with

ONWORKS network interfaces.

You can use the OpenLDV API to write your own application that sends and

receives messages through L

ONWORKS network interfaces, using either a

LonTalk Layer 2 or Layer 5 interface. These messages can initialize and

terminate communications with the network interface, retrieve incoming

messages, or transmit outgoing messages. See Chapter 2, Using the OpenLDV

API, on page 9, and Chapter 3, Sending and Receiving Messages with the

OpenLDV API, on page 57, for information about these topics.

OpenLDV Driver

You can use the OpenLDV runtime with network management or monitoring and

control applications. For example, for a self-installed system with fixed network

addresses, you can use the OpenLDV API to create an application that sends

messages to test the devices on your network. This diagnostic application could

periodically send request messages to devices in the system to check their status.

You can also use the OpenLDV API to create a data logging application to

monitor and retrieve network variable values from the various devices on your

network.

The OpenLDV 4.0 driver and API are backward-compatible with previous

versions of the driver and the API (but see Hardware and Software Requirements

on page 5 for the OpenLDV 4.0 requirements, which differ from those of prior

releases).

To develop an OpenLDV application, you must understand LonTalk message

formats and network interface state management. You also need to be able to

manage low-level LonTalk messaging details, such as LonTalk reference IDs.

Chapters 3 and 4 of this document describe some of the LonTalk message formats

that you can use with the OpenLDV API. In addition, the section Message

Header on page 62 includes some discussion of LonTalk reference IDs. See the

ISO/IEC 14908 Control Network Protocol specification for detailed information

about the LonTalk protocol.

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