Example: How to plan IP addresses for a large-scale monitoring network system?

For monitoring projects, many faults are caused by improper IP address settings, such as IP conflicts, or several monitoring images not being displayed, etc., which are all related to IP. It is very important to allocate IP addresses reasonably.

1. Why should IP be allocated reasonably?

For small monitoring projects, the IP address setting is relatively simple and most people will not make mistakes. However, for monitoring projects with more than 254 points, it is easy to make mistakes.

Why?

• First, if there are more than 254 points and the network segments are not divided, allowing the system to automatically assign IP addresses will easily cause IP conflicts.
• Second, if the network is divided into segments, the allocation of IP addresses and the setting of subnet masks become a problem. Some friends are not familiar with IP address allocation and are prone to making mistakes.

So what should we do? Dividing the network segments is a reasonable approach.

2. How do large networks allocate IPs?

For monitoring of more than 254 points, although we can assign IP addresses without dividing the network segments, a good network planning is not only about simply and barely realizing the functions, but also needs to focus on the later maintenance and the clarity and scalability of the entire network.

Let's take an example to see how to assign IP addresses.

A factory monitoring project is divided into four areas with a total of 300 points. All equipment is in an intranet, and the main line is connected by optical cable. There are two areas with 70 points each, and the other two areas with 80 points each. How to set their IP addresses?

The allocation is as follows:

First of all, there are two ways to monitor these 300 points:

The first type: No VLAN division, all arranged in a large network segment

The first method is to not divide VLANs and use layer 2 switches. The IP address can be directly set to an IP address range of 192.168.0.1-192.168.1.254, and a subnet mask of 255.255.254.0. A total of 500 IP addresses can be used, all of which are accommodated in a large network segment, which is completely sufficient.

This large network segment includes two IP segments:

• 192.168.0.1—192.168.0.254 Its subnet mask is 255.255.254.0.
• 192.168.1.1—192.168.1.254, its subnet mask is 255.255.254.0.

There are 508 IP addresses in total, which is more than enough.

Some friends may wonder how the subnet mask 255.255.254.0 is derived, and why it is not 255.255.255.0?

Subnet mask calculation:

Here we will explain the IP address range 192.168.0.1-192.168.1.254 separately. Why is the subnet mask of this network segment 255.255.254.0?

This IP address range includes two IP segments.

• The first IP segment is: 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.254 and its subnet mask is 255.255.255.0.
• The second IP segment is: 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.254, and its subnet mask is 255.255.254.0.

In layman's terms, their common subnet mask is 255.255.254.0.

Many small and medium-sized monitoring projects are intranets. In many cases, there is no need to divide VLANs for intranet projects, which can save resources. However, in order to prevent network storms, port isolation can be used to ensure network security.

The second method: divide VLAN

For large-scale monitoring, VLAN division is the preferred method.

Here we focus on the method of dividing network segments. Using switches can directly divide the network into four segments.

Main monitoring address: 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0

• Area A address: 192.168.1.2~192.168.1.254 Mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1
• Area B address: 192.168.2.1~192.168.2.254 Mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1
• Zone C address: 192.168.3.1~192.168.3.254 Mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1
• D zone address: 192.168.4.1~192.168.4.254 mask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.1.1

Each network segment can accommodate more than 250 points, and there are a total of 1,000 IP addresses available in the four segments, which is more than enough to allocate IP addresses to each area.

In addition, if additional points are added in each area in the future, there will be sufficient reserves. It is worth noting that the access layer switches here need to be reasonably allocated and selected.

So what are the benefits of dividing network segments in this way?

The IP addresses of the four areas are relatively obvious. If there is a problem with a camera, you can quickly locate the camera with the problem by batch pinging the IP addresses. At the same time, it can also effectively prevent IP conflicts. IP is a problem that occurs frequently in network failures, and it can also reduce broadcast storms.