User`s guide

Programming via LAN 5
Agilent VISA User’s Guide 135
Addressing LAN-Connected Devices
VISA can communicate with LAN- connected devices in one
of two ways:
• TCPIP interface type
• Remote interface type (available only with Agilent IO
Libraries Suite)
Using the TCPIP Interface Type for LAN Access
VISA provides the TCPIP interface type to communicate with
LAN- connected devices. These can be devices connected
directly to the LAN, or they can be connected to the LAN
through a LAN gateway such as the Agilent E5810
LAN/GPIB gateway or through Remote IO Server software
running on a remote computer with instruments connected
to it.
The format of a TCPIP VISA resource string is:
TCPIP[<board>]::<hostname>[::<LAN device
name>][::INSTR]
where:
• <board> = board number (default is 0)
• <hostname> = the hostname or IP address of the LAN
device or server
• <LAN device name> = the remote device name (case
sensitive with default name of inst0)
Using Connection Expert, you can configure a LAN interface
to use either the VXI- 11 protocol or the SICL- LAN
protocol. The protocol(s) you will use depends upon the
devices you are using and the protocol(s) that they support.
The VXI- 11 protocol constrains the LAN device name to be
of the form inst0, inst1, … for VXI- 11.3 devices and gpib0,n,
gpib1,n, … for VXI- 11.2 (GPIB Emulation) devices.
The SICL- LAN protocol allows any valid SICL name for the
LAN device name. A valid SICL name must be a unique