Connecting the FreeSpeak Edge Transceivers to a Matrix

The FS Edge transceiver connects to an E-IPA-HX card in an Eclipse HX Digital Matrix.

You can connect transceivers to one of the LAN ports (LAN 1 - 6) on the E-IPA card. The default connection for an AES67 network (IP transceivers) is LAN 3. For a fiber connection, connect the IPT to LAN 5 or 6.

Warning: Do not connect more than one cable from the E-IPA card to the same LAN/VLAN. This may lead to a broadcast storm and could seriously degrade the performance of your network.

  • Transceivers cannot be added to the matrix until at least one beltpack is configured in the EHX software.
  • Each E-IPA-HX card can connect to up to 64 IP transceivers (FreeSpeak II or FreeSpeak Edge). Each transceiver can connect up to 10 beltpacks.
  • The total number of beltpacks depends on your E-IPA-HX card license.

Recommendation:

  • The IP transceivers have a higher than average requirement for network timing accuracy. For this reason it is advisable to use different VLANs to route Admin/IVC traffic and AES67 IPT traffic.

Rule:

  • If you separate Admin and IVC traffic then they must be on different VLANs.
Note: The bandwidth usage per Edge transceiver is ~9.6 Mbps.

Warning: If you change the IP address of the AES67 ports (transceiver or E-IPA matrix card), the devices will reset automatically. Reset can take up to five minutes.

When connecting the E-IPA-HX card to the Edge transceiver over your network certain scenarios will work while others do not. This is down to the way the E-IPA card routes audio and data between ports and processors.

Example set ups:

Note: The illustration above is the preferred LAN connector (3) configuration for the FreeSpeak Edge system.

Network Setup for the FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Edge Transceivers

Bear in mind the following network considerations. For more information, refer to the Clear-Com network recommendations document.

  • Clear-Com recommends that AES67 traffic has its own dedicated network or VLAN.
  • If there is no DHCP server, AES67 connections will use the link-local range of IP addresses (169.254.XXX.XXX).
  • When configuring an AES67 network, the network switch needs to have DiffServ Quality of Service (QoS) switched on.
  • Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping needs to be switched on, with at least one IGMP querier.
  • The network must be 1Gbps. A 100Mbps network will not support the amount traffic the card can generate, and will not deliver the required PTP accuracy.
  • The Multicast enabled switch must be ON.
  • Try to keep the number of layer 2 hops between PTP leader and follower (for example, IP Transceiver) as low as possible (no more than three). If there are more than three, you require PTP aware switches. You may also have to use transparent or boundary clocks.
  • Use DHCP (the default setting) for fast and easy setup of the devices. If no DHCP server is present, IPTs will self-assign an IP address in the link-local IP range.

The screen below shows the E-IPA-HX card properties screen.

Note: If you need to use static IP addressing for your transceivers, see Static configuration in this document.

Cabling the FreeSpeak Edge TCVR

Run Ethernet cable from one of the LAN connectors on the E-IPA card (default AES67 connector = LAN 3) to connect the FS Edge TCVR to the same properly configured IP network.