Configuring a 2nd Network Card for your ECG multicast traffic

[neilric99]

Heres some setup steps that worked for me when setting up my windows 7 system to use a seperate network card for the EthConGateway traffic.

Issue: Madrix sACN has limited setup to allow network traffic to be directed to an network interface, and only allows Multicast configuration. Due to the high network utilisation this caused a slowdown on my default network.

resolution: Create a Static route on your windows network routing table to send the multicast traffic to a 2nd Network card.

1. route print to get the interface

C:\Windows\system32>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
14...00 1e 2a b2 3f df ......Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20)
11...00 21 85 36 ba 91 ......Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20)
1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
12...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
13...00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e0 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

I identified 14 as my 2nd Nic on 10.10.10.100

To create a route for the 224.0.0.0 subnet (sACN Multicasts on 239.255.x.x)

subnet netmask gateway
route -p ADD 224.0.0.0 MASK 240.0.0.0 10.10.10.100 METRIC 1 IF 14

note -p for persistent to keep in routing table after reboot

I have my 2nd NIC connected to its own switch which also has the DR4 and DR8 plugged in to it.

So here are the results of my changes to my routing table

route print



IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.50.1 192.168.50.30 266
10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 10.10.10.100 266
10.10.10.100 255.255.255.255 On-link 10.10.10.100 266
10.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 10.10.10.100 266
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
192.168.50.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.50.30 266
192.168.50.30 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.50.30 266
192.168.50.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.50.30 266
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 10.10.10.100 1
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.50.30 266
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 10.10.10.100 266

 

[j1sys]

I had sent Neil a head's up based on linux routing knowledge and the hope that it would translate to the windows environment.

Only one addition I would add - YMMV, IMHO, Not Safe For Children Under ....

This solution could work great for you, but then it also could mess up some other software/hardware configuration you are using.

So proceed with caution but it should not cause any permanent harm.

It is also possible that refinements to this technique would work that would narrow the net starting address and netmask down to a block of 256 universes (or more or less) and then you could route block #1 to one interface and block #2 to another.

All of this is only needed if you are working with Madrix or MagicQ or some other software which does not allow control of multicast destinations. Our Vixen plugin and the LSP driver (which is a derivative) do not need this. They have interface control at the universe level.

-Ed