Device discovery inside of E1.31

[multicast]

I'm looking to propose to the ETSA working group, Device Discovery inside of E1.31. The purpose of this would be so yoru controller ( Xlights or similar ) could actively discover the devices ( blinky speak controller that were on the network ) and then act intellegently in the way that it does thigns..

This woudl mean your controller could actively build a map of how data is sent out. For universes that are only being sent to one locaiton they could be unicasted.. for universes that are being sent to mulitple locaitons they could be multicasted. You'd also be able to find all your devices

How it does that is up to its implmentation, but the standardised bit would be the way of polling and the reply..

Any thoughts

 

[tooms]

Would it be easier to keep device discovery out of E1.31 and just use something existing like LLDP ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_Layer_Discovery_Protocol

I seen something recently about Xlights remotely configuring controllers .. I haven't looked into how it's done but I would of thought SNMP writes would have been the ideal way to push a configuration to a controller, unfortunately all controllers I've toyed with (PixLite & Falcon) lack SNMP support.

SNMP could also be useful for polling controllers capabilities and information in real time (number of outputs, configured pixel type, voltages, temperatures etc)

 

[multicast]

Would it be easier to keep device discovery out of E1.31 and just use something existing like LLDP ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_Layer_Discovery_Protocol
I seen something recently about Xlights remotely configuring controllers .. I haven't looked into how it's done but I would of thought SNMP writes would have been the ideal way to push a configuration to a controller, unfortunately all controllers I've toyed with (PixLite & Falcon) lack SNMP support.
SNMP could also be useful for polling controllers capabilities and information in real time (number of outputs, configured pixel type, voltages, temperatures etc)

LLDP's probalby is'nt a great choice. Thats very specific to the configuraiton / managment of switches.. And the packets wont' go further than a switch..
The protocol thats being proposed is to use mDNS/DNS-sd, which is the way lots of things can get discovered. No need to reinvent the wheel. its just the content of the messages that need to be dtermined.

This is just about discovery.. For configuration, you need to do something else. SNMP is one way, but its a bit long in the tooth and theres much easier ways to implement it.. But that can be done on a per device / system basis. In the case of the falcon, Xlights is just automating connecting to the web interface.. The pixlite folks have another app.. I use COAP..