Cisco and Huawei switch compatibility

[IgorHamzic]

Hi all. In our company we are going to implement VoIP in our regional offices were all the networking equipment is Cisco. We were thinking of using Huawei 8 port PoE switches to which we would connect our Cisco phones and then connect the Huawei switch to the Cisco switch using a trunk.

I was wondering if anyone has experience connecting Cisco and Huawei switches? Are there known problems interconnecting these switches and what should I pay attention to on the Cisco side of things?

We mostly deal with Cisco equipment in our company so connecting/configuring Huawei switches is something new for us.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[glen.grant · Accepted solution]

Thats a pretty rare switch , doubt you will find too many users . You would have to do your investigation on the Huawei support page on how to do trunking. Cisco normally uses pvst+ while most others use single spanning tree . There might be something on CCO on how to connect to other switches like that.

[IgorHamzic]

Thanks for the info. I'll try Huawei forums again.

[Kerem Gursu]

Hi Igor,

As Glen indicated , the main problem is spanning tree. Huawei switches use mstp where cisco has pvst by default.

The other problem is qos on switch ports for IP Phones. Cisco Switches automatically discover and configure some settings for IP Phones but Huawei will not do any of these by default.

If you are planning to use some L3 configuration on Huawei switches be sure that their administrative distances differ from Cisco.For example , static routes have admin distance of 60 :) Also routing protocols have different admin distances as well.

There are many differences on MPLS functions as well , but I guess they are all out of your scope.

Please let me know if you need further information.

Hope to help,

Kerem

[milan.kulik]

Hi,

as there was a law battle in the past between Cisco and Huawei (copying Cisco IOS, etc.), see

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/corp_012303.html?print=true

I'd expect Huawei switches being pretty similar to Cisco ones.

One of my friends met a Huawei switch several years ago and told me it looked like a Cisco one totally.

BR,

Milan

[Echo Chan]

Hi

As long as you are not using Cisco private protocols like PVST, they are gong to work, it is a matured solution, in China, many companies got a mixed network with Cisco and Huawei switches, for Huawei 8 ports PoE Switch, do you mean S2700-9TP-PWR-EI like listed here?http://www.huanetwork.com/huawei-s2700-9tp-pwr-ei-price_p559.html

If you still interest in compatible between Cisco and Huawei, I guess these guys may able to help you do test in their LAB.