Within Configure Items or Facilities –> Network Devices you can manage all of your network devices and their associated ports. Network devices can be such things as your ethernet hubs, patch panels, etc. Each device can have multiple ports of various types, we will discuss this in a bit. They can also be associated to accounts for billing purposes. You can track a lot of information for each one such as MAC address, IOS, location, GPS coordinates, active ports, available ports, etc.
When a network device is associated to a configured item, a graphical display of the connectivity is shown to the jack. This will include all building, cables, paths/strands and ports.
Ports
It is important to understand how CAIRS connects your network devices together. CAIRS manages connections just like you would in a real terminal, one port is connected to another port via a cable, whether that be in the same terminal or to a different building or to an ethernet hub on someone’s desk. Each port is connected with a ‘house cable’, don’t panic, we are not asking you start tracking your house cable. CAIRS will deal with your house cable behind the scenes so you don’t have to! If you are going to connect ports between buildings or other terminals, selecting a connection group/path is available however, it is optional.
We all know that all network devices have ports of various types. To help simplify this, in CAIRS we have created 4 distinct port modes: Trunk, Access, Mixed and Patch. The mode determines the specific function of the port. When you create a network device you will be assigning a start and end port number for one or more of the port modes. Each of these 4 port modes has a set of rules for how it can connect to other ports:
- Truck – can only be connected to access ports
- Access – can be connected to trunk ports, jacks, or other connected items
- Mixed – can be used as a trunk or access port. Once connected, this port can only be used once.
- Patch – this port allows for 2 connections, one trunk and one access connection
Let’s go one-step further and talk about Device Port Types. When you create the network device and you assign a set of ports for the 4 modes we talked about above, those ports have to be assigned a port type. The port type is basically the physical connection between the port, or for lack of a better term; the cable type used to connect them together. For example, a port type can be ethernet, fiber, GBIC, etc. Just like port modes, these port types have various rules on what they can connect to. For example, an ethernet port type cannot connect to a fiber port type. In this case, you can use an adapter to change the ethernet cable into fiber to connect the ports together.