RESPONDER Characteristic
6-16 Configuring LAT Characteristics
RESPONDER Characteristic
Access Server Mapping
In order to connect to other nodes on the LAN, the access server must be able to map
node names, port names, and services to specific nodes.
Datagram Types
LAT provides the following specific types of datagrams that facilitate this mapping:
LAT V5.2 nodes operating as LAT masters can address Solicit Information datagrams
to V5.2 slave nodes and be almost assured of a direct response. However, nodes
operating as V5.1 masters can only address Solicit Information datagrams to other
V5.1 masters since V5.1 slaves do not enable multicast addresses for the reception of
directory service datagrams. Therefore, V5.1 and V5.2 nodes are allowed to respond
to Solicit Information datagrams for slave nodes that cannot respond for themselves.
The RESPONDER characteristic determines whether the access server may act as an
agent for other nodes. By configuring one or more access servers to act as responders,
the other access servers can operate with a node limit of 1 and still be assured access
to LAT services. This frees up the dynamic memory and reduces the overhead that
would otherwise have been required to maintain the LAT node database.
Datagram Name Description
Service Announcement A mulicasted datagram used by slave nodes
to advertise services
Solicit Information A multicasted or physically addressed
datagram used by any node to solicit service
information from another node
Response Information A physically addressed datagram sent in
response to a received Solicit Information
message
