IP Site Connect Not Working on Local Area Network

[brj5144]

I have a local area network that runs over fiber throughout the city. There are multiple repeaters on this network. Some for fire, some for police, and some for the electric department. I work for the electric department and our repeaters will not see each other through IP Site Connect when plugged in with the other repeaters. I have worked in IT for 27 years so I know all about IP addresses and gateways and setting these correctly but I have very limited knowledge of IP Site Connect so I may be missing something.

1. When all the repeaters are on the same network with the same IP Gateway ours will not see each other and RDAC will not see both repeaters.
2. When I take a totally separate isolated switch and plug them into it they see each other and RDAC pulls them both up just fine.
3. When I create separate VLAN on the switch where the repeaters are the only thing on that VLAN (No gateway) they see each other fine and RDAC pulls them both up.

I currently have them working on a separate VLAN. But I would like to learn what causes this and what settings I could look for to get all of these repeaters working on the same switch.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Firebuff880]

Could be any of a couple of dozen things, from the repeater code plugs to the network device configurations.

I would start by re-reading the System Planning Guide available at Motorola Learning Solutions.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

So you have you have proved Layer 2 functionality. The issue appears to be somewhere at Layer 3 or above.

What I would start with is try to keep both repeaters in the same VLAN and add in your RDAC PC on another VLAN and test your inter-VLAN routing on the same router first. Best way to test this of course would be if you could lab it but I would make sure your repeaters in the same LAN still function and that RDAC can traverse correctly.

 

[brj5144]

Thank you. I will try that. But what confuses me is, in my mind nothing above layer 2 functionality should be needed should it. The network is 10.9.29 all repeaters have 10.9.29 IP addresses and 10.9.29.1 for the gateway. They should never need to talk to layer 3, a gateway, or anything outside of this network correct? As long as they see the other repeater they should never use the gateway. I'm sorry this is very confusing. I have 27 years IT experience and the guy helping me works for Motorola and he has 30 years experience and we are stumped.

The repeaters seem to work fine on their own switch with no access to a gateway. But when we move them with the other repeaters with correct network setting, IP Site Connect does not work. Also, there are not many IP addresses on this network so they shouldn't be any duplicate IP addresses conflicting with them.

 

[brj5144]

One more thing. I only know the IP Addresses of the other repeaters. I do not know their settings because they have been programmed by other departments. Also the RDAC software we have been using is on the Radio guys laptop. Is this RCAC software something that's included with the purchase of a repeater and I can download free?

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Something you can download along with the CPS once you create an account with Motorola.

 

[brj5144]

OK. Thank you very much. I am trying to draw a simplified diagram now. To make it easier to understand my problem for someone helping me.

 

[brj5144]

Here is a network diagram to show what I am talking about.

 

[Cameron314]

What kind of switches are these? Sounds like it might have some kind of client isolation going on.

 

[brj5144]

They are plugged into a ubiquity edge switch. I can ping the repeaters as well as do a port scan on them to see what ports are open. The electric master is using port 50000 and the electric peer is using port 50001. The police and fire repeaters have port 50000 open on them.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

You have multiple Master's…that's your issue.

 

[brj5144]

Thank you. That was what I was thinking. What exactly are the rules or reasons that will not work. Is there somewhere I can read about that. I told the radio man I thought it was some kind of licensing where the repeaters could see each other on the network and he said there wasn't any licensing. Could it be because they use the same ports to talk? Thank you. I am just hoping to get a definitive answer.

 

[brj5144]

I tried to look up how this works and I think when the network traffic is local, the repeaters might use UDP broadcast which confuses the other local repeaters because they can hear it. I had assumed since every repeater knew each other's IP address already, and it could also communicate over the internet, the communication would only be unicast, and they wouldn't have any effect on the other repeaters on the network.

I'm still not 100 percent sure. But that's what I am leaning to. The repeaters are sending UDP broadcasts on the network and confusing each other, instead of direct UDP unicast messages.

 

[Firebuff880]

Read Wayne's published overview - -

MOTOTRBO IP Networking

MOTOTRBO IP Networking About this document © 2023 Wayne Holmes DJ0WH This document started its life as several blog posts written between 2010 and 2020. Rather than updating an old blog post, in 2023 I decided to rather continue maintaining this as a (living) document that will allow me to upd...

docs.google.com

 

[brj5144]

This is the most I got out of it, and I guess it will have to do.

"Master Repeaters can share the same physical IP network and IP address space but, must be segregated somehow (usually by means of using different UDP ports)."

I'm still not sure why they must have different UDP ports or be segregated. Because, they all have different IP Addresses, and use unicast to communicate. But that's almost a definitive answer why it's not working. And that is what I was looking for.

Thank you. Everyone for your help.