PMP> RE: FIN> finisher mib integration into up3i

PMP> RE: FIN> finisher mib integration into up3i

McDonald, Ira imcdonald at sharplabs.com
Thu Feb 24 11:32:22 EST 2005


Hi Andreas,

Thanks for your interesting question below.

I'm copying this reply to the Printer MIB Project (PMP)
mailing list.  The Finisher MIB mailing list remains
functional, but has very few subscribers.  All future
MIB work in the IEEE/ISTO PWG is being coordinated
through the PMP list.

Please note that the 'finSupplyTable' has a non-index
informational element 'finSupplyDeviceIndex' defined as:

	"The value of finDeviceIndex corresponding to the finishing
	device subunit with which this finisher supply is associated.
	The value zero indicates the associated finishing device is
	Unknown."

And the 'finSupplyMediaInputTable' has a similar
informational element 'finSupplyMediaInputDeviceIndex'.

Those elements are NOT indices of their tables (and allowed
to take the value of zero), in case they are associated
with the overall finisher and not a specific finishing device.

It's certainly allowed to implement more than other printer
in 'hrDeviceTable' (and thus more than one complete print 
line for alerts, trays, etc.).  I think that's probably the
best way to separate the alerts/trays for individual finishers.

Note:  We've tried to accomodate UP3I requests for counters
in our Imaging Device Counters spec, Counter Schema, and 
Counter MIB work in the PWG WIMS working group.  Comments
are very welcome.

    ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/wims/wd/wd-wimscount10-20050120.pdf

    ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/wims/wd/wd-wimscountmib10-20050205.htm
    - full text - PWG boilerplate, introduction, model, references

    ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/wims/wd/wd-wimscountmib10-20050205.mib
    - ASN.1 MIB source only

Note that the Finisher subunit (the elements defined in the
Finisher MIB) has not yet been added to our Subunits schema.

    ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/wims/schemas/subunits-20041212.xsd

Cheers,
- Ira (co-editor of Printer MIB v2 and Finisher MIB)

Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
PO Box 221  Grand Marais, MI  49839
phone: +1-906-494-2434
email: imcdonald at sharplabs.com

-----Original Message-----
From: fin-owner at pwg.org [mailto:fin-owner at pwg.org]On Behalf Of Hirn,
Andreas
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 10:42 AM
To: 'harryl at us.ibm.com'
Cc: 'fin at pwg.org'; 'rbergma at hitachi-hkis.com'; technic at up3i.org
Subject: FIN> finisher mib integration into up3i


Hi Harry,


UP3I is a standard to connect independent preprinter, printer and 
postprocessing devices together to a printline like this:



                   +-------+
                   |       |
                   | Host  |
                   |       |
                   +---+---+
                       | 
                       |
                       |  e.g. Ethernet LAN
                       |                                                   
                       |                                                   
 +-------+         +---+---+         +-------+                              
 |       |         |       |         |       |                             
 | pre a |   ...   |Printer|  ...    | post c|    ....                    
 |       |         |       |         |       |                            
 +---+---+         +---+---+         +---+---+                             
     |                 |                 |                                 
     |                 |                 |                                 
     |                 |                 |                                 
     +-------...-------+------...--------+--------...                      
                       |                                                   
                       | 1394                                              
                       |                                                   
                   +---+---+                                               
                   |       |                                               
                   | UP3i  |                                               
                   |manager|                                               
                   |       |                                               
                   +---+---+                                               
                       |                                                   
                       |                                                   
                       |  LAN

                       |                                                   
                       |                                                   
                   +---+---+                                               
                   |       |                                               
                   | SNMP  |                                               
                   |manager|                                               
                   |       |                                               
                   +---+---+                                               
                        
   

The commands between the preprinter, printer and postprocessing devices are 
sent as standardized UP3I frames over a firewire cable. Every device has a 
unique address in the system, called paper sequence id. It is also possible 
to send SNMP requests packed into UP3I frames from the up3i manager to the 
up3i devices and back. The up3i manager could also have a LAN interface.

Now we want to implement printer and finisher mib support into the print 
line to allow an external SNMP manger to monitor the print line.


In the moment we have two ideas how we can do that:


1.) Stand alone devices
Every preprinter, printer and postprocessing device acts as a discrete 
device in the host resources mib of the up3i manager. The hrDeviceIndex 
could be the same as the paper sequence id. Every device itselfs implents 
the host resources-, printer- and finisher mib, independant from the rest 
of the print line. The snmp requests to the up3i manager are directly 
handed over to the up3i devices by packing them into up3i snmp frames.

The problem with this solution is:

We don't know if it is allowed (respectively meaningful)  to have a print 
line in which every device has its own hrDeviceIndex. It seems that the 
combination printer/finishing mib only allows one hrDeviceIndex per line 
and several finDeviceIndex(es) for every device. Is it meaningful 
regarding a SNMP Printer Manager to use several hrDeviceIndex instances 
in a print line?


2.) One hrDeviceIndex per print line
We have one hrDeviceIndex for the printLine, the up3i device are separated 
by their finDeviceIndex. The finDeviceIndex could be the same as the paper 
sequence id.

The problems now are:

The finSupply/finSupplyMediaInput tables are not indexed by the
finDeviceIndex, 
they have a separate finSupplyIndex/finSupplyMediaInputIndex. An agreement
is 
needed which device can use which finSupplyIndex/finSupplyMediaInputIndex.

Some information about the devices lies in the printer mib, e.g. parts of
the 
input output and alert table. The finisher devices also have to know e.g.
under 
which indexes their own input tables reside in the printer mib.
Therefore the printer and the finisher devices have to get this information,

which is not the case today, or the up3i manager has to merge all tables of 
every device together in tables for the whole print line, which could be a 
bold venture.


What do you think is the best way for us to implement printer/finisher mib
in 
the print line?




Best regards,
Andreas Hirn

_____________________________________

Andreas Hirn               OPS   TEC
Software Development

Océ Printing Systems GmbH
Siemensallee 2 
85586 Poing, Germany
Direct Dial  +49-8121-72 4029
Direct Fax  +49-8121-72 31 73
mailto: Andreas.Hirn at ops.de
www.oce.com
_____________________________________



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