The FieldDAQ device is associated with two MAC addresses—both of which are labeled on the device—device and switch.

These MAC addresses are not associated with a particular Ethernet port, but both addresses can appear on both ports as necessary.

Table 10. NI MAX Device and Switch MAC Addresses
Device MAC Address Switch MAC Address
Associated with the device's IP address Associated with the internal Ethernet switch—not associated with the device’s IP address
Used by normal device traffic Used for Ethernet protocols for network configuration and synchronization
Listed in MAX Not listed in MAX

The switch MAC address is used to implement the following switch protocols:

  • IEEE 802.1AS-2011 (Precision Time Protocol)
  • IEEE 802.1Q (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol [RSTP])
  • IEEE 1588 (Delay Request-Response Default Precision Time Protocol)

The switch MAC address only appears in packets exchanged between the switch embedded in the FieldDAQ device and the next Ethernet device. It will not propagate further in a properly configured network. For more information about the recommended configurations for networking the FieldDAQ device, refer to Topology Options.