IP Address

Introduction

Before you can establish a connection link from the host to the Excel platform (Matrix Controller card) as described in the CSP Hardware Installation and Maintenance Guide, you must obtain an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Acquire an IP Address

The IP address is a 32-bit address used in IP routing.

IP Addressing on Matrix Controller card

IP addresses and subnet masks can be assigned to a Matrix Controller card through Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP), Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP), or the debug console port. If the console is used, the IP address is saved in Electronically Erasable Programmable
Read-Only Memory (EEPROM).

When a Matrix Controller card resets and finds an invalid IP address, subnet mask, or gateway address stored in the EEPROM, it issues five RARP requests. If the Matrix Controller card receives no reply, it issues five BOOTP requests. If there still is no reply, it waits 20 seconds for input from the console. If there still is no reply, it repeats RARP, BOOTP and console indefinitely until it gets an IP address. The Matrix Controller has to have an IP address before the host connects.

IP Addressing on ISDN or SS7 cards

For ISDN or SS7 cards, you can use RARP, BOOTP, or the IP Address Configure message to configure the IP address. If IP Address Configure is used, the IP address is saved in EEPROM.

If the host sends an IP Address Configure (0x00E7) message with an IP address and subnet mask that differ from the values stored in the EEPROM, the EEPROM is overwritten with the new values. For the new IP address and subnet mask to take effect, you must reboot the card.

If the host assigns the same IP address and subnet mask, the message is acknowledged and the card does not need to be reset, so the host can send the IP Address Configure message whenever it is necessary.

When an ISDN or SS7 card finds an invalid IP address or subnet mask stored in the EEPROM, issues five RARP requests. If the card receives no reply, it issues five BOOTP requests. If the card does not receive a reply from either a RARP or BOOTP server, then the card will start up without TCP/IP services being started.

To store an invalid IP address and subnet mask in the EEPROM, use an IP Address Configure message with the IP address set to 255.255.255.255 and any value for the subnet mask.

Set or Change an IP Address on a Matrix Controller

To manually set or change the IP address, use the debug port on the Matrix Controller card and then follow the steps below:

1. While the Matrix Controller card is running, enter U from the debug terminal. This deletes all stored IP address information.
You are prompted to reset the Matrix Controller card.

2. Press RESET. You are prompted to enter a new IP address.

3. Enter the new IP address.You can use any class.

4. Enter the subnet mask. The subnet mask must be entered as an eight character hexidecimal value.

Subnet Masks

The subnet mask defaults to the values show in the following table. Make sure that cards are in the same subnet.

Set or Change an IP Address on an ISDN or SS7 card

If the host sends an IP Address Configure (0x00E7) message and the IP address and subnet mask in the message are different from the values stored in the EEPROM, the EEPROM is overwritten with the new values. The card will need to be rebooted for the new IP address and subnet mask to take effect.

If the host assigns the same IP address and subnet mask, the message is acknowledged and the card does not have to be reset. This allows the host to send the IP Address Configure message whenever it considers it necessary.

For SCCP/TCAP applications, you may configure whether the SS7 local host is used for each stack/subsystem. For SS7 stack/subsystems on the host that must communicate directly with the SS7 card, you must configure the local host as the host using the Config Type 0x08 in the SS7 SCCP/TCAP Configure (0x77) message.

Clearing IP Addresses

You can clear IP addresses by setting all of the IP address and subnet mask data to 0xFF in the IP Address Configure (0x00E7) message. If you plan to take a card with IP addresses from one chassis and insert it into another chassis, be sure to clear all IP addresses on the card first. Otherwise, there might be a conflict with the IP addresses of the cards in the new chassis.

More information

For more information about IP addressing for VDAC cards see the Developer’s Guide: Internet Protocol (IP). For more information about direct host communication with an SS7 card using TCP/IP, see the Developer’s Guide: Common Channel Signaling.