Advise on Wireless and 7921G

[martinbuffleo]

I have been asked by my boss to add some Cisco 7921 phones to our network.

Currently we dont have wireless coverage.

The wireless will be installed purely for voice.

Can someone advise me on, or point me to some docs, to ensure I set the wireless up as secure as possible, whilst allowing the phones to work, and also to make sure the wireless is configured correctly for voice.Currentlty only looking at one access point, but may expand in the future.

Thanks in advance.

[Federico Ziliotto]

Hi Martin,

The VoWLAN Design Guide might be what you are looking for:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Mobility/vowlan/41dg/vowlan_ch10.html

Regards,

Fede

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[Vinay Saini]

Hii ,

Here are some of the best practice when using 7921 phones with Cisco Unified architecture .

1. Use WPA+TKIP+CCKM as security

2. Disable the DHCP address requirement for the voice WLAN

3. Keep the session timeout value higher for the voice WLAN

4. Disable  load balancing feature for voice WLAN.

5. Map the WLAN with platinum Qos profile and Set proper COS value under 802.1p setting for Platinum profile.

Thanks

Vinay

[Leo Laohoo]

1. Use WPA+TKIP+CCKM as security

Depends on the firmware of the 7921/7925 you are using.  1.3.3 now support WPA2.

[Vinay Saini]

Hii leolaohoo ,

I agree with what you said , but even though we support WPA2 , Combination with CCKM was not fully supported.

"

Prior to this firmware release 1.3.4, CCKM was not supported when WPA2/AES was  selected; this required a full re-authentication when roaming between  access points, and could result in loss of audio during the roam. Now  that CCKM is supported when WPA2/AES is selected, the full  re-authentication is no longer required and roaming to a new access  point should not result in any perceptible loss of audio.

Firmware 1.3(4) provides full CCKM support of all WPA versions.

"

However , in recent firmware 1.3.4 problem seems to be fixed . refer to the following link for details : http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cuipph/7925g/firmware/1_3_4/english/release/notes/792x_134.html

So in summary :

Use WPA+TKIP+CCKM for firmware 1.3.3 or lesser

Use WPA2+AES+CCKM for firmaware 1.3.4 or later ( you need to verify it that works fine)

Thanks

Vinay

[Leo Laohoo]

Perfect.  Absolutely perfect.  You just gave me the justification to upgrade to 1.3.4.  Thanks (+5).

[George Stefanick]

I would consider the 7925. We've have a lot of probems with the 7921. In fact, Cisco

is replacing all 3,000 of our 7921s at cost for 7925s.

[Chuck Dillon]

Hi George,

I would like to know more about this. Are there any other specifics you can share as to how you came to this solution?

We too have had nothing but problems with the 7921 phones. I have had TAC cases opened an closed with no resolution, I currently have one open that is slow going, I've had Cisco onsite as well as other 3rd party consultants. Still these phones do not perform well for us.

thanks, Chuck

[George Stefanick]

We couldnt narrow down our issue at first. After interviewing users and inspecting phones we found some phones exhibited cracked antennas while others didnt have any visual drop problems, but poor radio reception was observed.

We took known working phones in a properly deisgned RF area and compared them to what we thought could be problem phones and tested by walking down a hallway with phone calls in progress.

It was obvious it was a phone issue and not a wireless issue ...

After further discussion, we learned there was a antenna issue on the 7921 where the antenna could come detacted after a drop. This came from Cisco ..

I hope this helps..

[Chuck Dillon]

Yes, very helpful thanks much!

[George Stefanick]

Thanks for the rating.. Let me know how you make out ..