To configure a channel, you need to know the type of connection that the channel uses (such as Serial or Network), and the settings that are used for that type of connection.
Often these settings are fixed, according to the type of communications equipment being used. Refer to the documentation associated with the communications equipment for these settings—you need to configure each channel to have the same settings as the communications equipment for the device(s) with which the channel is associated.
Where any settings are not fixed, you need to be aware of which settings are being used for the communications equipment on your system. The engineers that configure the PLCs, outstations and so on, should create a list of the settings that they have configured. If you have access to such a list, you can use it to define those requirements.
You also need to establish which features are required for each channel. You can configure each channel to use a variety of features, including alarm redirection. However, many of these features are optional and do not affect the success of communications. The optional features include:
- Alarm view
- Alarm redirection
- User methods.
If the features listed above are not configured, they are not used for the selected channel (they will be left blank).