====Gateway and Direct Drivers====

For certain bus systems - such as Modbus - you can sometimes find there are two distinct types of driver. A standard driver, and a //gateway// driver.

Standard drivers are for when there is one address (serial port or TCP/IP address, for example) for each data source. This is common when you have a large network of remote I/O modules that are accessed directly.

Gateway drivers are used when you are communicating to a number of devices that are //behind a gateway// of some kind. 

This is most frequently found when you have a Gateway device - such as a Modbus RTU / Modbus TCP converter - that means that you are accessing **multiple** devices through a **single** address.

Gateway drivers are far more efficient for these situations, and help avoid connection limits on some hardware. However, the trade-off is that you will need to set more information when connecting your properties to data, since you'll need to provide information about //which// address you're connecting to on the other side of the gateway.