Using UC320W with SLM2008, SRW2024 and WRVS4400N

[chrisguertin]

This question has a bit of a broad scope, but I am a total newbie to VLANs despite being an IT consultant for 28 years now... The network was never my focus until now.

1. Using the hardware in the subject line, can I propagate the Voice and Data VLANs all over the network successfully?
   
2. How the heck do I configure the VLANs on those 3 devices? The regular setup manuals leave me a lost.
   
3. The WRVS4400N is the old hardware (v1) and cannot be set up with 2 or more Wi-Fi SSIDs. I could scrap it from my office/demo network given it's low cost (it served well for years as my main router and is now just a switch and AP). What AP would you suggest to extend the UC320W's wireless network (voice and data VLANs) into signal-challenged parts of a building? Can a Wi-Fi connection even be tagged with a VLAN ID?
   
4. The old SRW2024 looks a lot like one of the new SG300s. Can it be firmware upgraded to the the same level? Will it then do this magic CDP stuff and set up it's own VLANs?
   
5. I need to have something that works well at the end of the day as it will be my own production system (torture tested by my family of 7) and a demonstration site for my clients to come and "play" before they buy. I am looking to add telephony to my long-standing IT practice.
   

So I need both help and opinions. Should I keep or scrap some or all of this gear? How do I configure the VLANs on those older devices?

Any and all help appreciated.

Thanks folks.

[Christopher Edgeworth · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris,

I think you should be able to use your switches in your network.  The newer generations contain some of the auto voice features which make it easier in the installation along with being more green in power consumption and heat generation.  Essentially, you will need to create VLAN 100 (call it voice) on each switch.  Then you will need to make each port a trunk port that is "tagged" (with VLAN 100) and untagged on VLAN 1(shouldn't need to do anything for VLAN 1).  Usually this is done on a page call Port to VLAN.  We are in the process of updating the Smart Design document for swtiches for the UC320W solution to add more coverage for manual settings. 

As for the WRVS4400N you may want to set this aside for now.  To extend your WiFi coverage you will need to use an Access Point such as the Cisco AP 541N.  When bridging between WiFi and Ethernet you are essentially mapping a VLAN to an SSID.  In the UC320W and when you configure the AP, you will associate VLAN 1 (untagged) with your data SSID and associate VLAN 100 (voice) with the Voice SSID.    In this release you will want to use the same parameters and passwords in the WiFi configuration for both the Access Points and the UC320W.

Hope this helps.

Chris

[chrisguertin]

Again, appologies for being a VLAN newbie!

Let's start with the SLM2008.  I created a VLAN 100 and made all ports members of that VLAN (VLAN 1 is a member of all ports too, from what I gather):

This next screen looks the same for VLAN 1 when I click MODIFY above.

Now how do I set up this next screen to allow all ports to pass both VLAN 1 and VLAN 100?

Thanks!

[Christopher Edgeworth]

Hi Chris,

Looks good so far.  If you plug a SPA500 series phone into one of the ports and the UC320W LAN side ports into one of the other switch ports and then look at the IP address of the phone, does it get an IP from the voice VLAN (10.1.1.x by default)?

Chris

[chrisguertin]

If I connect an SPA525G2 phone to the SLM2008 (which is itself connected directly to one of the UC320W's LAN ports) it DHCP's an address on the voice VLAN, 10.1.1.11 with a default router of 10.1.1.1 (which is the voice side of the UC320).  I even factory reset the phone to be sure it has to pull a new DHCP config.

I would have thought that I would need to add something for VLAN 100 on that "VLAN Port Settings" screen I included above.  I don't understand why it is allowing VLAN 100 packets to pass without being untagged in the process...

Thanks.

(next I will try the SRW2024 but I have to mount it somewhere in my office first)

[chrisguertin]

What about QoS?  How does the SLM2008 know to give priority to the VLAN 100 packets?  Or does it?

[Christopher Edgeworth · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris,

The UC320W, SPA phones and SPA8800 will mark the voice and SIP signaling packets with Diff Serv or Diff Serv Code Point (DSCP) at layer 3 and Class of Service (CoS) at Layer 2.  I think this switch is just a layer 2 switch so you would give priority to the below CoS values.

SIP:

     CoS:  3

     DSCP:  0x68

Voice packets (RTP):

     CoS:  6

     DSCP:  0xb8

I doubt you will cause congestion on a Gig switch, so the point of congestion will be the WAN connection.  This is where the QoS marking and setting the WAN uplink speed are important.

Hope this helps.

Chris

[chrisguertin]

I seem to have both the SLM2008 and the SRW2024 flashed to current firmware and passing both VLAN 1 and 100 successfully.  I have set some QoS options on both but don't know if they are working or not. I'm not having any quality issues at least.

The WAN uplink speed on the UC320W should be set to the uplink speed of my Internet connection I assume?  For example, I have 50Mbps down and 2Mbps so I would set this value to 2Mbps, correct?

Thanks for your help and I do have an AP541N ordered and arriving next week.  The last peice of the puzzle will be extending both the data and voice VLANs wirelessly to the "quiet" part of my building where Wi-Fi phones will not currently connect.  I will set the SSIDs the same, encryption and keys the same and use different non-overlapping channels such as 1, 6 and 11.  Is this the correct approach?

I hope you are having a good weekend!

[Christopher Edgeworth]

Chris Guertin wrote:
 I seem to have both the SLM2008 and the SRW2024 flashed to current firmware and passing both VLAN 1 and 100 successfully.  I have set some QoS options on both but don't know if they are working or not. I'm not having any quality issues at least.
The WAN uplink speed on the UC320W should be set to the uplink speed of my Internet connection I assume?  For example, I have 50Mbps down and 2Mbps so I would set this value to 2Mbps, correct?
Thanks for your help and I do have an AP541N ordered and arriving next week.  The last peice of the puzzle will be extending both the data and voice VLANs wirelessly to the "quiet" part of my building where Wi-Fi phones will not currently connect.  I will set the SSIDs the same, encryption and keys the same and use different non-overlapping channels such as 1, 6 and 11.  Is this the correct approach?
I hope you are having a good weekend!

Hi Chris,

Yes, everything you have described is correct.  You are well on your way!

Chris

[chrisguertin]

The AP541N is installed and working as advertised.  I have the voice and data SSIDs set the same as the UC320 (the only difference being channels) and the VLAN traffic seems to be flowing correctly. The SPA525G2 is picking up a DHCP address from the Voice VLAN.

For QoS, I set the AP541N to the "Optimized for Voice" preset.  It seems to be working fine but the Gigabit network here isn't very stressed.

The AP541N has a pre-configured "cisco-scan" SSID.  What is this for and do I need to leave it on?

For those coming late to this message thread for advice, I have a successful UC320W-based voice and data network running in my test environment (aka my home-based office with a family of 7) with the following gear:

(all units have most current firmware)

New UC320W

older LinkSys SRW2024

older LinkSys SLM2008

New AP541N (connected to the SLM2008)

SPA504G (connected to SRW2024)

SPA525G2 (connected Wi-Fi to AP541N)

Panasonic 5.8 GHz cordless phone system with 4 handsets connected to FXS port on UC320W

I plan to add more SPA phones, especially if a cordless flavour is released

I have clients scheduled to come onsite for demos of the telephone system.  I hope to generate some quick sales and build a VoIP customer base into my consulting and MSP practice.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my various threads while I sorted all this out.