+1 QOS is key, but so is the rest of your network. Keep in mind that voice and data are totally different animals, voice has no way to deal with packet loss or latency so everything in the chain needs to be in top shape. Don't know anything about Allworx but we run Shoretel VOIP over VLAN with HP switches without major issues and have several remote sites connecting back through numerous microwave hops. Everything works, we just insure that all equipment in the chain is capable of prioritizing voice traffic, and any cabling that's carrying voice gets tested and certified. Actually, one of the reasons Shoretel rose to the top of our short list a few years ago was their insistence that they test and confirm the ability of our network infrastructure to support voice prior to sale. They tested for a couple of weeks, running simulated traffic between locations, logging and reporting on jitter, latency and other factors at different call volumes, so there were no surprises when we went live. We had several other vendors who would have been perfectly happy to just drop equipment in place and see what happened. No one else proposed, least of all insisted on, the level of pre-sale testing that Shoretel did, which for me at least, was a good indication they were serious about what they do and also drove home for us the importance of the small details. What you're describing is a pretty basic installation and should work, with or without VLAN at that size. As others have said, first make sure QOS is enabled and also double check the particular codec that's being used, just to insure that it's not something that's eating more bandwidth than necessary for clear conversation. Dennis
________________________________ From: Mayo, Bill [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 7:34 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: VLAN question Little late to the party, but figure I'll throw in my $.02 worth. As was mentioned by several, the key thing here you need to be concerned with is QOS. Putting the data and voice on separate VLANs is a best practice in my experience, but that alone isn't going to prevent breakups/dropouts/etc. I think someone expressed concern over the traffic going over the shared cable, but that should not be a problem at all, given VLAN segmentation and proper QOS across the infrastructure. I can only speak to Cisco's VOIP system, but having a shared wire is pretty much the norm there. The Cisco phones and switches are all designed for this and it is a selling point (you don't have to pull more cable). I know absolutely nothing about HP switches, but the way it is configured is key (asssuming, of course, it is capable of supporting the VOIP configuration you require). I know that, over the years, the proper commands in Cisco's switches for supporting a Cisco VOIP system have evolved and having a single vendor here has helped (Cisco can't blame any issues on somebody else and they have a good reason to make sure their gear is interoperable). Bill Mayo ________________________________ From: Evan Brastow [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 6:40 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: OT: VLAN question Preface: I have no idea what I'm talking about. With that out of the way, I have a network consultant and a phone supplier that are a little bit at odds. We just purchased an Allworx IP phone system. All was going well until it was made active today and because apparent that voice quality was horrible. The IP part is only internal... External calls go over standard analog lines. But the problem is with internal calls as well as external. The Allworx phones share a 100Mbps network with the computers. We're a small company (smaller than ever) with about 25 computers and 19 phones, BUT, a lot of those phones and computers are out in production areas and receive VERY little use (i.e., someone will log in/out of a job once every few hours, and make a phone call once a day out there.) There are probably only about 8-10 active computers, and fewer active phones. The way it's configured is that the phone sits on the same cable as the computer. It goes from the wall jack to the phone, and then from the phone to the computer. The phone are on the same subnet as, and get IP addresses from the same DHCP server as the computer network. When phone calls are made, there's echoing, latency, static, etc... The switch is an HP ProCurve 2810-48G. Cabling is all CAT5 at least. The phone supplier is telling me that the way to segment the traffic to make sure there are no voice quality issues is to create a VLAN on the switch. But my IT consultant is saying, "What's to segment? Everything's on the same cable and on the same subnet?" It appears now that the phone supplier is saying that he can create a VLAN, and then they would use the Allworx phone system server as a DHCP server for the phones, which would put them on their own subnet, thereby making all the traffic flow better and the calls clearer. He said he'd have to link the two VLANS together as there are computer apps that interface with the phone system. So, my question is (because I don't know much about this end of networking,) does this sound like creating a separate VLAN is really going to help improve bandwidth and increase call quality? Thanks so much J Evan ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
