9.541 Proxy-Device

The Proxy-Device logical device maps all parameters of a device which is controlled by a remote sat-nms M&C into the local system. A typical application for the Proxy-Device is to couple M&C systems for site redundancy switching.

On startup or when the Proxy-Device receives a new 'address' configuration setting, it connects to the remote M&C and checks which type the remote device is. Then it sets up all variables, this device type defines. It binds these variables to the device remote M&C, to make each variable at the local system an exact duplicate of the variable at the remote system.

Once it is connected to the remote system, the Proxy-Device also changes it's appearance at the user interface: The device window pages now are those of the remote device. The faults page shows the faults of the remote device, the info page no longer describes the device driver as a Proxy-Device but as the remote device type it mirrors.

For all that the Proxy-Device does not resemble the remote device in all details. There are some few exceptions which are important to manage the Proxy-Device:

• The Proxy-Device does not mirror the configuration / setup variables of the remote device. The setup dialog which is accessible through the maintenance page of the device window always shows the Proxy-Device's setup variables, not the setup variables of the remote device. This ensures that the Proxy-Device remains (re-) configurable even it is already connected to the remote M&C.
• The Proxy-Device adds one fault flag ('Remote connection fault') to the list of fault flags the remote device provides. This fault is set while the IP link to the remote system is broken. The remote connection fault contributes to the summary fault in the usual way.
• At the device info page an additional line is shown, containing the IP address and the connection state to the remote M&C.

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with the Proxy-Device as long as it is unconfigured. As mentioned above, the Proxy-Device will provide the device window pages of the remote device as soon it is connected.

• --- The device info page.
• --- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters from this page are described below.

Configuration parameters

At the maintenance page of the Proxy-Device you set the IP address of the remote sat-nms M&C and the name of the device to mirror. The setup page is still accessible when the Proxy-Device is connected, hence you are able to re-configure the destination of a Proxy-Device at any time.

Remarks / Limitations

• The Proxy-Device requires a permanent network link to the remote sat-nms system. Dial-Up connections are not suitable. Also should the network link provide a reasonable bandwidth, 64kbps are the absolute minimum.
• The Proxy-Device is not capable to mirror devices creating variables which are not listed in the device driver file at runtime. Such variables will be silently ignored by the Proxy-Device.
• For the Proxy-Device it is very important that the device drivers both at the local and the remote M&C define exactly the same variables. If some variables appear to not updates as expected, check the device driver versions on both machines.
• When the local M&C boots, the Proxy-Device does not know which type of device it shall mirror until it is connected to the remote system for a couple of seconds. During this time, the proxy device does not provide any variables of the remote device.

Variables defined by this device driver