The Optigo Networks team has been hard at work developing new features and diagnostic checks for Visual BACnet! Version 1.8.8, which launched on April 6, puts key summary details at the forefront and introduces four new diagnostic checks.
New features
We’ve put the network health summary on the file screen, so you can see at a glance where packets are showing problems. Simply scroll through, and stop when you see yellow or red!
Filtering through frame information just got simpler: when you drill down to the frame, you can now expand and collapse it, just like you can in Wireshark.
If you’re on a secure site without access to Internet, or need to share a report with a colleague or supervisor, you can still view network patterns and anomalies. We’ve added the traffic graph from the Visual BACnet summary screen to the downloadable PDF report.
New diagnostic checks
There are now four new diagnostic checks, to catch more potential network problems. These new diagnostic checks include the “Reject-To-Networks” stat diagnostic check, amount of ReadProperty, maximum number of networks, and router busy.
1. “Reject-To-Network” statistic diagnostic check
A Reject-Message-To-Network is generated by a router either when it gets a message that it cannot relay to the specified network, or when it receives an unknown network layer message directed specifically to that router. The message will contain a Reject Reason, indicating the source of the issue. The diagnostic check looks at the number of Reject-Message-To-Network packs, and drilling down into it will show you all of the Reject-To-Network messages and the Reject Reason.
2. Amount of ReadProperty
A BACnet device may use the ReadProperty service to ask for the value of a BACnet or non-BACnet object’s property. More importantly, especially in MS/TP networks, ReadProperty requests are commonly used instead of the change of value (COV) notification requests to poll for the value of an object property. This diagnostic check identifies excessive polling done on an object.
3. Maximum number of networks
All controllers have a set number of networks they can remember. Anything above that set number of networks requires polling for every command, adding unnecessary traffic. This new diagnostic check flags your system if you have too many networks, and maxes out at 150 networks.
4. Router busy
Router-Busy-To-Network messages are used as congestion control to temporarily stop traffic for one or more specific DNETs. This lack of communication means that busy routers can massively disrupt networks. This diagnostic check identifies any Router-Busy-To-Network messages.
Happy troubleshooting!
