Network Operation and Remote Control
R&S
®
SMA100B
252
User Manual 1178.3834.02 ─ 03
11.3 Remote Control Programs and Libraries
This section shows how the remote-control programs access the instrument, and the
libraries they require for the appropriate interface protocols.
Figure 11-2: Overview of remote control interfaces, protocols and libraries
11.3.1 VISA Library
VISA is a standardized software interface library providing input and output functions to
communicate with instruments. Thus, you can configure the interface without having to
adjust the application program to the used interface. The I/O channel (LAN or TCP/IP,
USB, GPIB,...) is selected at initialization time with the channel–specific address string
("VISA resource string"), or by an appropriately defined VISA alias (short name). See
also
for an overview.
Instrument access via VXI-11 or HiSLIP protocols is achieved from high level program-
ming platforms using VISA as an intermediate abstraction layer. VISA encapsulates
the low-level VXI or GPIB function calls and thus makes the transport interface trans-
parent for the user.
A VISA installation is a prerequisite for remote control using the following interfaces:
●
LAN interface using
●
LAN interface using
●
Instrument access via the LAN socket protocol or GPIB connections can be operated
both, with or without the VISA library. See also
Chapter 11.2.1.4, "Socket Communica-
Chapter 11.2.3, "GPIB Interface (IEC/IEEE Bus Interface)"
For more information about VISA library, refer to the user documentation.
Remote Control Programs and Libraries
