Addressing your plant

The IP inventory is a join, not a list of addresses. Every row is one physical port on one device, carrying its equipment identity — device, slot, rack, RU, technical area — beside its network identity — address, prefix, VLAN, segment, flow role.

That is why it answers questions neither half could answer alone: which addressed ports are in rack 4, or which ports on this frame still have no address.

A port is network, unclassified, or not-network

Addressing only applies to ports that are on the network, so Canvas classifies every port three ways rather than two. The third verdict is the one that matters: a port whose signal nobody has filled in yet is not the same as a port that is definitively not a network port.

Verdict	Means	In the inventory	Can take an address
network	Signal is a known IP transport, or the port declares a link speed	Listed	Yes
unclassified	No signal declared and no link speed — a gap in the data, not a fact about the port	Listed	Yes, and it raises a finding
not_network	Signal is declared and is not an IP transport — SDI, AES, analogue, RF	Withheld, and the count is shown	No

The order is enforced, not merely suggested

You cannot allocate an address before a prefix exists, and you cannot describe a flow before a pool exists. Canvas refuses out-of-order work and names the next step instead of opening an empty panel.

#	Object	Needs first	Gives you
1	Segment	—	A colour, a kind, a PTP domain
2	VLAN (optional)	Segment	A VID to hang prefixes on
3	Prefix unicast	Segment	Addresses for ports
4	Prefix multicast_pool	Segment	Group addresses for flows
5	Pool	A pool-role prefix	A named group range
6	Address	Unicast prefix + a network port	A bound port
7	Flow	Pool + sender port	A described stream
8	Receivers	Flow	Something for the path check to trace

Where each job lives

The work splits across two pages, and the split is deliberate: you author on the drawing, where the plant is visible, and you audit in the table, where every port can be filtered and sorted.

Surface	Use it to
Cable Diagram — IP layer	Create segments, VLANs, prefixes and pools; arm a prefix and click ports; draw flows; see segment tint and bandwidth heat on the plant
IP Inventory	Every port as a row; facet by addressed and network state; assign or release one port at a time; find what is missing

1. Open the IP layer

Sign in with your work email. Canvas sends a one-time link, so there is no password to manage or rotate. Follow the link, then pick the project you are addressing: every segment, prefix and flow below belongs to exactly one project and is never shared across them.

Open the Cable Diagram. This is the equipment half — devices, ports and cables, the substrate that addressing binds onto.

Turn on the IP layer with the IP toolbar button. It adds three tools — Draw flow, Assign IP and Heat — and docks the IP segments and IP flows palettes.

2. Create a segment

A segment is the top of the tree: a broadcast domain with a colour that tints ports and devices everywhere else on the drawing. Open Palettes ▾ → IP setup.

Every network object is created in this one palette, and the sections run in dependency order.

Field	Values	Notes
Name	1–64 characters	Required
Kind	media · control · mgmt	Separates the media network from control and management
PTP domain	0–255	Optional — the ST 2059-2 domain this segment runs
ST 2022-7 pair	another segment	Optional — marks this as one leg of a redundant pair
Colour	#hex	Optional — drives the tint on the drawing

3. Add a VLAN

Optional, but worth doing before prefixes so you can attach the prefix to its VLAN in one pass. A VID is 1–4094 and can be tied to a segment. Once it exists, the inventory shows it per port — so a VLAN mismatch shows up in the same table as the address, rather than in a separate spreadsheet.

4. Create the prefixes

A prefix is a CIDR block inside a segment, and its role decides what it is allowed to hand out.

Role	Hands out	To	Offered when addressing a port
unicast	Host addresses	Device ports	Yes
multicast_pool	Group addresses	Flows	No — deliberately excluded

A group address belongs to a flow, not to a port. Offering one when you are addressing a port would produce an allocation that immediately disappears from the row you clicked, so Canvas leaves it out.

5. Name a multicast pool

The Multicast pools section stays collapsed to a single line until a multicast_pool-role prefix exists. Once it does, the form appears and you can name a pool against it. Flows draw their group addresses from the pool rather than from a raw CIDR, which is what keeps group allocation auditable.

6. Put addresses on ports

Two ways, suited to different jobs.

On the drawing — for a run of ports

Click Assign IP. What happens next depends on how many prefixes exist, and all three cases are deliberate.

Prefixes	Behaviour
0	Refuses, and names the next step
1	Arms immediately — picking the only option would be ceremony
2 or more	Opens disarmed, so nothing is allocated out of a prefix nobody chose

Pick the prefix, optionally set a label, then click IP-capable ports on the drawing. Each click takes the next free address and the same label — which is the whole point when you are addressing a frame.

In the inventory — for one port you went looking for

Hover the row: an Assign button appears in the address cell and opens a prefix picker inline. Save takes the next free address. A bound row shows Release instead, which takes the address off the port but keeps the address itself.

7. Read the inventory

The table is the audit surface. The facets across the top count as well as filter, so you can see the shape of the job before touching anything.

Control	What it does
Search	Device, port, address or rack in one box
Address facet	Addressed / No address, with live counts
Network facet	Network port / Signal not declared
Show non-network ports	Reveals the withheld rows
Columns	Rack / RU, Device, Port, Signal, IP address, Segment, VLAN, Flow, Area

8. Describe a flow

A flow is one sender port, a group address from a pool, a bandwidth, a UDP port, and any number of receiver ports. Click Draw flow, then click the sender port and each receiver in turn — Esc cancels.

Choosing an essence fills in the bandwidth and UDP port from a preset, so the oversubscription maths stays consistent across a project instead of being retyped per flow.

Essence	Bandwidth	UDP port	Typical ST 2110 carriage
video	2 703 000 000 bps	5004	ST 2110-20 uncompressed video
audio	4 915 200 bps	5004	ST 2110-30 / -31 PCM and AES3
anc	2 000 000 bps	5004	ST 2110-40 ancillary data
data	100 000 000 bps	5004	ST 2110-41 / -43 metadata and timed text

A new flow is born in state planned and is activated explicitly. The flow also carries an ST 2022-7 group and a twin, so a redundant pair is one object with two legs rather than two unrelated flows.

9. Run the path check

Run path check traces every flow from sender to each receiver across the cabling you have actually drawn, and recomputes the findings. It is one idempotent pass that both opens and closes findings, so running it twice changes nothing.

Finding	Raised when	Closes when
Path incomplete	A flow has receivers that cannot be reached across drawn cabling	The cabling completes the path
Link oversubscribed	Subscribed bandwidth on a cable exceeds its capacity	Flows move, or capacity changes
Port unclassified	An address was bound to a port with no declared signal	The port’s signal is declared

Heat tints every cable by subscribed ÷ capacity, so an oversubscribed link is visible on the plant rather than buried in a report. A traced flow path draws over the heat.

Six things worth knowing first

1. The Assign button is hover-only. An unaddressed row looks inert until the pointer is over it. Nothing is broken.
2. A row can be un-assignable, and the table says why — not a network port, or network status unknown when no verdict came back at all.
3. Multicast prefixes never appear in the port picker. If a new block is missing from the dropdown, check its role.
4. Assign IP with no prefixes refuses rather than opening, and the message names the next step.
5. The label is sticky while it is set.
6. Hidden rows are counted, not silently dropped. If a project looks empty, read the line under the facets before concluding the import failed.