How many printers per VLAN

[fhansen82]

Hi

At present we have two /24 printer VLAN's. I was considering the possiblity of collapsing them to a /23 (they are next to each other in third octet). Reason is because the first VLAN is always depleted, and the other has room to spare. My concerns are what effect this would have on network performance and whether broadcast traffic will overwhelm the broadcast domain.

Best regards

Frank

[Julio E. Moisa]

You could use a network /23, the broadcast will not affect your network. /24 or /23 are good practices.

[fhansen82]

Thank you Julio. How would I best prove/document this?

[Julio E. Moisa · Accepted solution]

Hi, Subnet with 512 hosts or less are the recommended to be used, you should avoid to use subnets /22 or with more valid hosts to avoid degradation of your network. 

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/10593746/cisco-recommended-subnet-sizes-vlans

Also please check this link:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/8x/uc8x/netstruc.html#wp1043655

Hope it is useful :-)

[fhansen82]

Thank you Julio. Just as a side question. Does printers create more or less broadcast traffic/noise on a broadcast domain compared to client PC's?

Br

Frank

[Julio E. Moisa]

Hi, thanks,

The broadcast domain size should be the same but the network utilization will be less compared with traffic originated by the subnet for hosts.