LonWorks Glossary

Neuron ID

It is a address that is hardware dependent and changes according to the hardware. The network management tool must have the Neuron ID for commissioning a device. The Neuron ID does not contain any information about the device address. A unique 48 bit Neuron ID associated with each LonWorks device results in approximately 300 trillion different combinations when it gets burnt into the Neuron chip during the manufacturing process. When a device is pinned, the Neuron ID is broadcasted through the network so that a logical address (Subnet/Node ID) can be assigned.

Subnet/Node ID

Subnet is a logical collection that consists of up to 127 devices within a domain and all devices in a subnet must be on the same segment. With one subnet, the LNS Network Interface is assigned a Subnet/Node ID of 1/127, whereas all other device’s Subnet/Node IDs begin with an address of 1/1 and increase sequentially to 1/2, 1/3, etc. These values are automatically assigned by the network management tool. Up to 255 subnets can be defined within a single domain. Subnets cannot cross non-permanent type routers. The address is hardware independent i.e. whenever a device gets replaced; the new device uses the same Subnet/Node ID in spite of new one. The node ID identifies a device on a subnet. It is actually a logical address assigned to a device after it has been commissioned. The subnet segment of the ID is employed to route packets. Packets will be available to other channels/subnets only according to the requirement. The other channels include: the source channel, the destination channel and all channels between the source and destination. A device’s Neuron ID and Subnet/Node ID both can be found in the Identifiers tab of the device’s properties.

LNS (LonWorks Network Services)

LNS which is basically a client-server operating system developed by Echelon Corporation provides directory, installation, management, monitoring, and control services required for open LonWorks networks. It is a platform that permits multiple LNS applications to interoperate on the same personal computer (PC) or on multiple PCs on the same network. A single LNS Server can support many interoperating client applications. The LNS Server has the capability to work as a standalone application on a PC attached to the network, or on the same PC as the Network Management tool. Besides remote clients i.e. Clients on other PCs can log into the LNS Server to access the shared LNS database. API products cannot be commissioned using LNS tool and vice versa because API networks function as a peer-to-peer network and employ a different database structure than client-server model. Network Management tools using the client-server capabilities of LNS allow multiple Network Management tools running on different PCs to simultaneously access the same LNS Server. This capability allows several users to work at the same time on a single network. An application that uses the services of the LNS Server is called LNS client and the host application that uses an NSI as its network interface is called an LNS host application. This host application utilizes the services, events, and properties provided by an NSS to perform network installation, configuration, maintenance, repair, monitoring, and control. It can also implement its own application-specific services, events, and properties and, through the LNS architecture, make these available to other LNS host applications.

Lonworks Glossary II
Lonworks Glossary III