7900 series phone with non-Cisco switch

[tato386]

I am planning a 7900 series deployment in a non-Cisco switching environment.  My question is, how do the phones know which VLAN to use?  I am assuming that in a Cisco environment the command "switchport voice VLAN x" identifies the VLAN to be used for voice on the switch.  Then when the phones boot maybe they do some CDP stuff to figure out what VLAN to use.  What happens when there is no CDP?  Do I need to pre-configure the phones for the voice VLAN?  Can I work it backwards and setup the non-Cisco switch voice VLAN to coincide with the default VLAN on the phones?  Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Diego

[Robert Thomas]

Hi Diego,

If your switch don't support CDP,  you may look to see if your switches support LLDP-MED with is an alternative to CDP.

Understanding LLDP-MED

LLDP for Media Endpoint Devices (LLDP-MED) is an extension to LLDP that  operates between endpoint devices such as IP phones and network devices  such as switches. It specifically provides support for voice over IP  (VoIP) applications and provides additional TLVs for capabilities  discovery, network policy, Power over Ethernet, inventory management and  location information.

For most IP phones you can enable LLDP-MED from the CUCM webpage

"Enables and disables Link Layer Discovery Protocol Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED) on the switch port. Use this setting to force the phone to use a specific discovery protocol, which should match the protocol supported by the switch. Settings include:"

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/7975G_7971g-ge_7970g_7965g_7945g/8_0/english/administration/guide/7970set.html

[tato386]

Thanks rothoma, definitely looks like something I need to check out.

Diego