Network

The backbone of your scoring system is the network which interconnects all parts of the system. A good network setup is half of the effort for a good result.
Before diving into the technical details of the network, we want give you some general lines of advice:

Separate the scoring network from other network traffic

There are several good reasons to keep your scoring network separate from all other network usage in the venue:

• Security: not giving other uses access to the scoring network is a first step into keeping the network safe.
• Avoid overload: If the network is only used for the scoring system, you have a clear picture of the load you might expect. If you allow other users to freely access the network, you might end up with some users who will consume more network capacity than expected and slowing down the scoring system.
  

Don’t rely on the venue’s network

Mostly for the same reasons as mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is a risk to rely on the network facilities already present in the competition venue.
Unless you have the opportunity to work together closely with the technical staff of the venue, to make sure all of the requirements regarding separation of the scoring network from other network usage and garanties regarding reserved capacity, you want to deploy your own network backbone.

Using your own network setup makes life easier

If you are having a one-off event, setting up the network might be complicated anyway. If you are, however, organizing competitions on a regular basis, using a fixed set off devices to set up your network will make your life much easier, because you don’t need to configure your network from scratch for every event. You deploy your set of devices in the same way for each event. The only thing which will vary from venue to venue is the way you connect your network to the internet.

So what do you need then?

A complete network set-up consists of following items:

• A router, completed with switches where necessary.
• Network cables to connect your key devices to the router.
• One or more access points to add WiFi to your network.
  

In the next pages, we discuss each of these items in detail.

*Note that we try to give some general guidance for acquiring network equipment for your scoring system setup. In this respect, we try to keep it as simple as possible without making compromises regarding capacity and stability. If you have needs that exceed the basic setup described here or feel uncertain about anything, we strongly recommend to seek for expert advice.