Supporting Guides

Host Networking

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Use this guide to connect your host machine to your sensor for the first time. The sensor must receive an IP address and share a subnet with the host machine. IP assignment can use DHCP, link-local, or static addressing.

Once the sensor has an IP address on the correct subnet, address it by hostname (os-991234567890.local, where 991234567890 is the serial number on the sticker on top of the sensor).

Note: DNS Service Discovery text announced by the sensor may provide an incorrect part number corresponding to an internal code. Find the correct part number via the web interface or HTTP API.

The sensor announces itself through mDNS/DNS-SD using service type _ouster-lidar._tcp on port 80. Service text records include path=/api/v1, fw, pn, and sn when available.

Networking Terminology

IPv4 Address A dot-notation address used to communicate with devices on a network, formatted as four octets xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (each 0–255). For example, the host may be 192.0.2.1 and the sensor 192.0.2.130.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Server A service running on the host, switch, or router that assigns a unique IPv4 address to each connected device.

Link-local IPv4 Address Self-assigned addresses used when no DHCP server is available. Valid only within the directly connected network segment. Range: 169.254.0.0/16.

Subnet Mask Defines which bits of an IPv4 address identify the network and which identify the host.

Binary FormDecimal-dot notation
IP address11000000.00000000.00000010.10000010192.0.2.130
Subnet mask11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000255.255.255.0
Network prefix11000000.00000000.00000010.00000000192.0.2.0
Host identifier00000000.00000000.00000000.100000100.0.0.130

Note: The subnet mask can be abbreviated as a prefix length. For example, /24 = 255.255.255.0 and /16 = 255.255.0.0.

Static IPv4 Address A manually assigned address for the host and/or sensor, bypassing DHCP and self-assignment. For example: host at 192.0.2.100/24, sensor at 192.0.2.200.

Hostname A human-readable name for the sensor. The hostname is os-991234567890.local, where 991234567890 is the sensor serial number.

Note: The .local suffix denotes the local mDNS domain. It applies when the sensor is directly connected to the host machine or on the same local network. To reach the sensor on a different domain (e.g., with a supporting DHCP and DNS server), replace .local with that domain. For example, on ouster-domain.com the sensor is reachable at os-991234567890.ouster-domain.com.