Networking Question

[Jeff Messer]

I ran my show last year with a switch at the house to cover two cards which were a sandevice and j1sys. Out of this switch a ran a network cable to another switch which had two cards both j1sys. This years show I will need to add another switch that will handle 7 cards which are 5- sandevice and 2- j1sys. Here is the switch I am using Trendnet 8-port unmanaged Gigabit Greennet 8x10/100/1000Mbps. Being my yard is so spread out and all my cables are buried.  Like I said it did it last year but the show is getting bigger and bigger each year.

 

Do you feel there will be an issue if I have the network running from switch to switch?

 

Jeff

[plasmadrive]

You buried your cables?    Wow!  Impressive. 

 

I can't answer your question for sure, but it sounds like it should be ok.  I ran a wireless bridge last year for 8 universes without issue..

[ShellNZ]

I am doing the same thing this year, I have 2 x TPLink 8ports this year to run all my pixel controllers.  One switch on the left side of the display, one on the right. 

[Jeff Messer]

Yes all power and network cables are buried. I will come off one switch go underground and plug into another switch. It worked last year coming off the house switch to the pixel tree where I had another switch for two j1sys cards.

 

ShellNZ,

 

Are you going from the computer to one switch then to the other switch? Guess we call it daisy chaining.

 

Jeff

[ShellNZ]

Yes, daisy chaining them.  Computer to switch (inside only 20" from computer), that will have 1 cable running through a hole to outside then go approx 25m to next switch.  Hoping not to have any issues.

[Jeff Messer]

Multicast?

[ShellNZ]

Unicast

[dougd]

There use to be rules on how many switches you could use, but with today's stuff the only limitation is total distance apparently.

[bphynes]

We run a switched (bridged, not routed) network at a clients (not for lighting) with nearly 100 switches over a 300 acre site. The limits/issues are:

 

1. The spec says 100 meters (about 300 feet) between active devices... and that is often exceeded by modern gear using good cabling. This is not the total run but the distance between switches. A switch is a repeater, among other things.

2. Collisions and broadcasts. Some days our broadcast traffic hits 6 mbps, which is largely arp'ing. That's not much on a Gigabit network, but it would be barely functioning on a 10 Mbps network. Switches (as opposed to hubs) limit collisions, but they can still be seen from time to time.

3. Number of devices... there is no official limit, but most networking people wouldn't put more than a couple of hundred devices on one broadcast domain. (We, clearly, aren't "most networking people".) Many devices lead to more collisions, more broadcasts, and more bandwidth.

4. Bandwidth... I'm new to E1.31,.. but make sure you have enough bandwidth. If you're pushing 6 or 10 2000-pixel megatrees, you're gonna have way more traffic that driving 5 CCRs. At some point packets start getting dropped. I readily admit that I don't know where that point is.

 

When/If you start hitting those limits, you would want to divide it into more networks, probably by putting additional NICs in the PC.