Campus wide vlan

[darren-carr]

Hi everyone,

I am working on a design that will see VSS implemented in the distribution and core of a campus network design. My plan is to use a layer 3 port-channel between my two VSS (dist/core) and run a IGP between the two. Vlans for each area of the campus will be terminated on the distribution switches for each area of the campus. I do have one slight issue however in that I need to span a couple of vlans campus wide, so the gateway for these vlans will terminate on the core. I was just wondering how people went about doing this and what technologies/best practices there are to satisfy this requirement.

Thanks           

[devils_advocate]

Why will the default gateways for these SPAN vlans be on the core and not the distribution switch?

You shouldn't have any issues either way depending on how you do the routing.

[darren-carr]

I have a couple of vlans that need to be accessible from the edge in all areas of the campus such as a management vlan for all switches, a wifi/wifi management vlan, etc.

[darren-carr]

Hi guys,

Anyone have an opinion on this? In my campus I plan to deploy L3 between the distribution blocks and cores. Only issue is that I have a site wide WiFi network that I need to implement that will span the whole campus. The only way I can see myself doing this is spanning the vlan across the campus. The issue is I will have L3 not l2 links between the distribution blocks and the core. Any ideas or suggestions as to how I can best achieve this?

[rfalconer.sffcu]

If you have the capacity, you could set up L2 connections for just those specific vlans and leave the L3 in place for the majority of traffic.

I haven't given it much thought but maybe you can work something with L2TP?

[darren-carr]

Thanks Robert, I probably should have elaborated on the infrastructure I plan to use. We will have a pair for 4500E's in the core (not really a core as we typically know it) and 4500X's in the distribution block. I seem to recall reading that the 4500X's don't suppose L2TP.

I have the physical capacity to cater for a L2 port from the distribution block to the core, but just wondered if this was the best way of doing this?

[rfalconer.sffcu]

If the IP address space has to be the same over L3 links, I can't think of any way aside from some kind of tunneling. 

What type of wireless equipment are you using? Do they have some way of setting up ethernet over IP tunnels from the APs to the controller?

[darren-carr]

Agreed.

Company is pushing Aruba. So Aruba 7200 series controllers and 224/225 APs. I'll have to read into them a bit more as they aren't a product I have a lot of experience with.

[rfalconer.sffcu]

Aruba might be able to support what you're looking for. It's been a couple of years since I used them but there may be something that will work with multiple IP subnets on the same SSID.

Try to get this included as a requirement for the wireless gear your company purchases, that it must support the way the network is designed.