Looking for an Ethernet selector switch

[RTSLVU]

I am looking for an Ethernet selector switch.

Not an Ethernet hub or classic Ethernet switch.

Here is the scenario:

I have to concurrently test several devices though a Telnet interface, that all have the same hardcoded IP address.

 .

So I can not just plug them all into an Ethernet hub.

Using more than one network interface will not work because the destination IP is the same so I can not setup static routing...

Looking for ideas and suggestions, and of course it has to lend it's self to being controled through LabVIEW.

Message Edited by RTSLVU on 04-07-2010 02:16 PM

[nathand]

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but you could get a bunch of routers that do NAT (network address translation), assign them all unique IP addresses, plug one of your devices into each router, and configure the router to pass specific ports straight through to your device.  I'm not sure how expensive it would be, but maybe you could find a bunch of old wired-only routers that no one wants anymore and use them?

[RTSLVU]

Yeah, that's what we came up with too.

[gizmogal]

We need to do the same thing and are having all kinds of trouble. How did you resolve it, could you please tell us?!? We have UUT's that are hard-coded with the addres 10.10.10.1 and we want to batch test them. We need to communicate with each UUT using the TCP/IP protocol.

[RTSLVU]

Well we really did not even try it as the project was cancelled before we had a chance but nathand's idea seemed like it would work 

[Mark_Yedinak]

Not the cheapest solution but a managed switch would allow you to accomplish this. You would control the switch programmatically and turn ports on or off as desired. It would require you to do some programming to interface with the switch. Some support SNMP and other would have to simulate a command line interface.

[RTSLVU]

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@Mark Yedinak wrote:

Not the cheapest solution but a managed switch would allow you to accomplish this. You would control the switch programmatically and turn ports on or off as desired. It would require you to do some programming to interface with the switch. Some support SNMP and other would have to simulate a command line interface.

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Hey that sounds like a much better soultion then the multi-router idea!

[gizmogal]

Thanks for the replies! We'll try the managed switch because the multiple routers just do not work.

Our plan was to have one test PC connected to the LAN port of an ethernet switch, then connect from that switch to the WAN ports of individual routers each with a UUT connected to it. Each of the routers is set with port forwarding to 10.10.10.1. We're not sure if it's because of the fact that the UUT's address ends in ".1" or not, but in any case we are having no success.

I'll report back on whether the managed switch is any better. In the past we've resorted to multiple test pc's but that won't fit our batch testing needs in this case.

[Omar_II]

We went the managed switch route that Mark Yedinak noted.

Through a serial console port on the switch we are able to turn on and off ports and get actual data transfer information on that port.

We are even able to issue commands from the switch to test the UUT without having to use a port on the PC. 

The only trouble that we have had is the time it takes after a port is switch on for the UUT to be able to respond (ping) on that port.

Some times as long as 10-20 sec and then some time less than a sec. That may be more an issue with the UUT than with the switch.

Like it was said, it's not the cheapest solution, but does give you complete control.