User Manual

Glossary 40
NetworkAmp Manager—Owner’s Manual
Network topology: The structure of a network. Common network topologies include
star, ring, tree, and bus. Ethernet networks utilizing hubs are typically wired in a star topol-
ogy, although a network may consist of various topologies.
Performer: The devices on a CobraNet network that are wordclock slaves. Performers
synchronize to the conductor. See also Conductor.
Propagation delay: CobraNet has a fixed propagation delay of 5.33 ms. This will be
acceptable for some applications, but if you’re compensating for microphone placement or
trying to eliminate the Haas effect, you can use this fixed value to calculate any compensa-
tory delay times that may be necessary.
Repeater hub: A basic network hub that retransmits all incoming data to all of its output
ports.
RJ-45 connector: The type of connector used to connect 10Base-T, 100Base-T, and
1000Base-T Ethernet devices.
RS-232C: A serial interface for connecting serial devices, offering a transmission dis-
tance of approximately 15 meters, typically using 9- or 25-pin D-sub connectors.
RS-422: A balanced serial interface for connecting serial devices, offering a transmis-
sion distance of approximately 1 kilometer and higher data rates and greater immunity
to interference than RS-232C.
RS-485: A balanced serial interface for connecting serial devices. Similar to RS-422 but
with support for multiple receivers and transmitters, offering bidirectional half-duplex
communications over a single twisted pair.
Sampling rate: CobraNet supports a single sampling rate of 48 kHz.
Serial Bridge: CobraNet’s Serial Bridge feature allows serial data up to 57.6 kbps to be
transmitted over the network. Due to the process of packetizing and re-serializing serial
data, data sent over the Serial Bridge is delayed approximately 10 milliseconds.
Straight Ethernet cable: An Ethernet cable that is wired pin-for-pin (i.e., pin 1 con-
nects to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, and so on). Straight cables are used to connect Ethernet devices
to networks. You can easily tell whether an Ethernet cable is crossover or straight by looking
at the wiring of both connectors. If the wiring is identical, it’s a straight cable. If it’s different,
it’s a crossover cable. Contrast with Crossover Ethernet cable.
STP (Shielded Twisted Pair): A cable consisting of two shielded conductors that are
twisted together.
Switching hub: Sometimes referred to as a switch, switching hubs know the network
address of each device on the network and automatically route network traffic accordingly,
so each device receives only data addressed to it.
Unicast bundle: CobraNet bundles 256 through 65,279 are unicast bundles, which
means they are transmitted only when two devices are configured to transmit and receive
them. Unicast bundles only allow point-to-point connections and as such are far more
bandwidth efficient than multicast bundles. This efficiency means that CobraNet can hap-
pily coexist with networked computers, printers, etc., on a switched 100Base-T Ethernet
network. However, non-CobraNet devices may unpredictably demand a lot of network
bandwidth, which may affect CobraNet performance and even cause audio dropouts, pops,
or clicks. A dedicated CobraNet network is strongly recommended for mission critical
applications. Unicast bundles can only be used on switched networks. Unicast bundles can
be configured to work like multicast bundles, but that’s beyond the scope of this glossary.
Contrast with Multicast Bundle.
UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair): A cable consisting of two unshielded conductors that
are twisted together.
WAN (Wide Area Network): A network that covers a wide area, typically made up of
two or more LANs. CobraNet is not a WAN technology. See also LAN.