Scripting BACnet/Eth Tests

[Jim Fell]

Is there a way to configure VTS scripts, so that the network connection uses BACnet/Eth (BACnet over Ethernet; i.e. using MAC addresses)?

[John Hartman]

On the "Edit" menu, select "Ports" and configure the port to use Ethernet rather than IP.

Are you testing ONLY BACnet/Eth, or also BACnet/IP? VTS allows you to create multiple ports - such as one for IP and one for raw Ethernet. However, as the "VTS Survival Guide" (in the docs folder) says

Define one and only one Port. Otherwise VTS won’t have a default and you will need to pick a Port each time you want to send a message using the message dialogs, and your scripts will need to specify a Port, which makes them less reusable.

[Jim Fell]

Thanks, John. My question is specifically in regards to scripting BACnet/Eth. For example, in BACnet/IP we may have something like...

  ACTIVENET = 'ip'
  IUT_ADDR = 172.16.1.43
  OBJECT1 = device, 555      -- Product Name
  OBJECT2 = analog-input, 1  -- AMD Airflow
  OBJECT3 = analog-input, 2  -- AMD Temperature
  OBJECT4 = analog-input, 4  -- AMD Alarm Status
  OBJECT5 = analog-value, 1  -- AMD Area
  OBJECT6 = analog-value, 10 -- Traverse Status

  SECTION Read Properties of OBJECT1

  TEST#1.1 - Read object-identifier
  DEPENDENCIES None

    SEND (
    NETWORK = ACTIVENET
    DA = IUT_ADDR
    DER = TRUE
    BVLCI = ORIGINAL-UNICAST-NPDU
    PDU = Confirmed-Request
    Service = ReadProperty
    InvokeID = 0
    SegMsg = 0
    SegResp = 0
    MaxResp = 1476
    Object = 0, OBJECT1
    Property = 1, object-identifier
    )

    EXPECT (
    NETWORK = ACTIVENET
    SA = IUT_ADDR
    DER = FALSE
    BVLCI = ORIGINAL-UNICAST-NPDU
    PDU = ComplexAck
    Service = ReadProperty
    Object = 0, OBJECT1
    Property = 1, object-identifier
    OpenTag 3
        AL = {object-identifier}
    CloseTag 3
    )

How should this be modified to work with BACnet/Eth?

[John Hartman]

An exact update (changing a few variable names) of your code would be

  IUT_NET = 'MyEther'
  IUT_ADDR = 112233445566

  OBJECT1 = device, 555      -- Product Name
  OBJECT2 = analog-input, 1  -- AMD Airflow
  OBJECT3 = analog-input, 2  -- AMD Temperature
  OBJECT4 = analog-input, 4  -- AMD Alarm Status
  OBJECT5 = analog-value, 1  -- AMD Area
  OBJECT6 = analog-value, 10 -- Traverse Status

  SECTION Read Properties of OBJECT1

  TEST#1.1 - Read object-identifier
  DEPENDENCIES None

    SEND (
    NETWORK = IUT_NET
    DA = IUT_ADDR
    DER = TRUE
    PDU = Confirmed-Request
    Service = ReadProperty
    InvokeID = 0
    SegMsg = 0
    SegResp = 0
    MaxResp = 1476
    Object = 0, OBJECT1
    Property = 1, object-identifier
    )

    EXPECT (
    NETWORK = IUT_NET
    SA = IUT_ADDR
    DER = FALSE
    PDU = ComplexAck
    Service = ReadProperty
    Object = 0, OBJECT1
    Property = 1, object-identifier
    OpenTag 3
        AL = {object-identifier}
    CloseTag 3
    )    

However, if you are writing scripts that deal with only a single IUT at any given time, you may be able to simplify things. Take a look at the section "Writing Effective and Reusable Scripts" in the "BACnet Survival Guide." Details of the port, network, and destination address can be defaulted to an "IUT" defined under "Names" on the Edit menu.

[Jim Fell]

Thanks so much, this was very helpful! I had to make one small change to get it working.

IUT_ADDR = X'112233445566'