Use of Preamble ID (HP) vs Network ID (ID)

XBee & XBee Gateway
1

I am using a XBee Pro 900 HP within the US region and having been looking at the various parameters that can be set in XCTU. I see there are settings for the Preamble ID and the Network ID. Looking at the docs, Preamble ID is checked before Network ID. But in either case these settings are used where only devices with matching IDs can communicate with each other. This has me confused in which should be used to sort of group certain devices from another. It sounds like either can be used. What would be an ideal use case to use one over the other?

Preamble does say “Different preamble IDs minimize interference between multiple sets of devices operating in the same vicinity.” That sounds like something to do with channels? But I am unsure.

Preamble ID
Network ID

2

The HP is the Hopping pattern. Its range is from 0 - 7. This means that the radio will hop over its AF using different pseudorandom patterns. This is the first layer you can use to isolate the networks. The next layer is to set the ID field. Unless you have more than 8 networks in range, the HP command would be my first option for filtration.