Setting up DHCP Servers

Sensors and other Ubisense hardware, such as Timing Distribution Units, require a network infrastructure to communicate with the DIMENSION4 Real-time Location System (D4 RTLS).

Although not essential, the default configuration for the D4 RTLS uses DHCP and DNS servers to:

  • Dynamically assign IP addresses to sensors.

  • Enable sensors to determine the IP address of the Location Platform server.

The D4 RTLS does not rely upon either DHCP or DNS being available. In these situations, you can assign static IP addresses to each sensor.

Once the sensors and TDUs have been installed and connected, the network settings are configured using the Ubisense Location System Config tool (LSC).

DHCP Server

A DHCP server is used for assigning IP addresses to sensors, TDUs and the discontinued 2.4 GHz Receivers.

As a minimum, the DHCP server must provide the following information to a sensor:

  • IP address

  • Subnet mask

  • Gateway IP address

If you are connecting the Location Platform servers to an existing network, you might not be able to set up another DHCP server on that network for use by the D4 RTLS. Instead, your Network Administrator must assign an IP pool from which an IP address can be assigned to each sensor.

If you do not have an existing DHCP server installed on your network, you can download a DHCP server, free of charge, from https://www.dhcpserver.de/. This example is implemented by Uwe Ruttkamp, and is just an example—other examples are available. Ensure that you read the documentation carefully.

An example dhcpsrv.ini file suitable for the Ruttkamp implementation is given below. You can use this when you need to set up a small test system and you do not have an existing DHCP server.

This section provides an example dhcpsrv.ini file, which you can use with the free DHCP server available at https://www.dhcpserver.de/ when setting up a test system.

This example is not suitable for a production system.

Ensure that you set up the DHCP server to use a static IP address. The example file uses the following static IP information:

  • IP address: 192.168.0.1

  • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Ensure that you:

  • Set up the file to use the same subnet mask as the network card on your server.

  • Set the IPPOOL setting to use a range of addresses on the same subnet.

Your sensors can boot only if you have configured the DHCP server correctly.

Copy 
---start-of-file---
[SETTINGS]
IPPOOL_0=192.168.0.10-254
IPBIND_0=192.168.0.1
AssociateBindsToPools=1
Trace=1
DeleteOnRelease=0
ExpiredLeaseTimeout=3600

[GENERAL]
LEASETIME=86400
NODETYPE=8
SUBNETMASK=255.255.255.0
NEXTSERVER=192.168.0.1
ROUTER_0=192.168.0.1
# If you have set a prefix, remove the # character from the start
# of the line below and replace <prefix> with your prefix
#BOOTFILE=UPREFIX=<prefix>

[DNS-SETTINGS]
EnableDNS=0

[TFTP-SETTINGS]
EnableTFTP=0

[HTTP-SETTINGS]
EnableHTTP=0
---end-of-file---