What is the difference between Active, Passive or Hybrid connections, as it appears in device status under Connection Type?
Connections to devices can be direct “active” (such as TCP or serial) or unattended “passive” (such as UDP). Both transports styles have their pros and cons. Active traffic is typically sent with a transport level CRC and will “resend” if a packet failed to transport; since this is data is time-sensitive in nature, this can cause live data streams to fall further and further behind over time. Because of this issue, active style connections are only recommended for smaller data payloads, like those delivered from a connection to a single device. Passive traffic is broadcast without concern about whether or not the intended recipient received the data. This has been described effectively as “turning on the fire-hose”. The good thing about a passive connection is that data stream will not fall behind; it doesn’t care if you missed a packet. But, therein lies the primary issue with passive transports. More recent devices are supporting an active “command” channel and a passive “data” chann
