[asterisk-users] network design philosophy and practice

[Alex Balashov]

In my experience most of the serious QoS issues arise in relation to the 
Internet pipe (if the provider is IP, and outside the network), not the 
LAN.  Of course, LANs can be heavily contended, but are not in most 
organisations, especially as gigabit cores are getting increasingly 
common even in smaller mid-size and small organisations.

I would pay most attention to the router(s), unless your PSTN 
connectivity is TDM and on-premise.

Drew Gibson wrote:

> Bill Michaelson wrote:
>> I'm wondering how prevalent the practice of physically segregating 
>> voice and data networks is in the Real World.
>>
>> What are the factors that typically lead to such a decision?  
>> DIscussions of pros and cons are most welcome by me.
>>
>> Experiences, anybody?
>>
> 
> We chose to go with a segregated network and certainly don't regret the 
> choice. Voice and data are on separate ports at the desk, avoiding QoS 
> issues completely and reducing confision amongst users who still expect 
> separate Phone and Computer plugs on the wall.
> The traffic does run through the same switches and inter-switch trunks 
> but always on distinct VLANs.
> 
> My experience with connecting the desktop computer through the phone has 
> been very poor. Audio breaks up when the computer does large data transfers.
> 
> "Yes, Sir. I'll just look that up in our 
> datab...ba....ba.....ba....sssss.....ssssss......ssssss......se"
> 
> In addition our users require gigabit to the desktop. The phones are 100Mb.
> 
> Worst part is the few Cisco phones we have insist on "searching for 
> VLAN" (which doesn't exist) for 5 minutes on startup. Hopefully they 
> will be replaced through attrition but despite being over-priced, 
> over-featured and proprietary, Cisco do build robust kit. Sigh.....
> 
> regards,
> 
> Drew
> 
> 


-- 
Alex Balashov
Evariste Systems
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