High Availability, High Bandwidth Building LAN Design

[michael.whittle]

Hi all,

I have to design the LAN infrastructure for a new building. I'm familiar with these sorts of designs but the requirement is insane. I know what sort of design I want to use but I don't know of any hardware which would cope with what needs to be done. The requirement is GigE connectivity to each port in the building and each desk will have 3 ports one of which will be used for the IP phone.

I would normally have thought putting two 6509's in the "basement" and run fibre up each side of the building to 3550's located on each floor on opposite sites would do the trick. Then cable up the floor with structured cabling. The first problem is that the building will hold 360 people, so that's 1080 GigE capable ports. There are 5 floors of which 4 will be occupied by people. So that's 270 ports per floor.

Help? ;p

Regards,

Mike

[rais]

You can get 3550s with GE copper ports. For up links use 10G.

You can also convince them that so many ports may be just a waste. See if their VoIP phones already come with built-in switch to connect to pc.

HTH.

[a.giorgi]

Hi

With only 3550 you will need 6 switches by floor, then 24 switches.

I suggest Catalyst 4507 + 1 3550 or 4510 with 10 GB to distribution switches (Cat 6500).

I suppose that there is no budget restriction

I agree 3 ports to each desk it's too much.

Think big

Alberto Giorgi from spain

[stellan · Accepted solution]

As you said yourself, the requirements are a bit over the top.

3550 is not a choice since they are not in production anymore, the successor 3560 might fit. Then u should go for Cisco Catalyst 3560G-48TS (48 10/100/100 + 4SFP)

But I would suggest Cisco Catalyst 3750G-48TS as access-switches on each floor. They have 48 10/100/1000 copper and 4 SFP-slots. Then, most IP-phones have a switch integrated so there is no need to have separate port on switch for this. So in that case you would only need 2 ports for each desk.

That would make 180 ports/floor. You need 4 switches/floor.

And 2x Cisco Catalyst 3750G-12S, stacked in the "basement2. They are equipped with 12 SFP-slots each. Ciscos new StackWise stacking gives a very high level of resiliency, automation, and performance.

Use one fibre-pair (or if you use WDM, one fiber) for each switch on each floor with 1Gbps instead of 10Gbps feeding each floor. 10Gbps makes the whole installation MUCH more expensive.

Good luck whatever you choose to do.

-stellan

[michael.whittle]

Thanks to the three of you who have replied. The answers have helped a lot.

[stellan]

Good Luck Michael

-stellan

[a.giorgi]

Yes, good luck, but tell us the end of the story.

Just to learn.

Thank you.

Alberto Giorgi from spain

[michael.whittle]

I've attached a Visio diagram which details the advice I got. I still need to think about it a while but I think that's the way we'll go.

[michael.whittle]

Hi,

I believe the requirement is actually 10-Gig uplinks and cost isn't an issue. Will these devices you suggested still cope? It sounds like a massive amount of bandwidth of the stacked distribution switches.

There is also a requirement to run PoE for IP phones. Should I be using, 'WS-C3750G-48PS-S' instead? What sort of impact does that have on a switch. I would imagine the power requirements would increase quite a lot.

Would we still be looking at 4 stacked, "3750G-48TS's" on each floor with 2 stacked, "3750G-12S's" as the distribution?

Regards,

Mike

[sarancheck · Accepted solution]

chossing 3750 is ideal choice. Three port can also done using HAG - Home access gateway . In this way you can use CATV,IP phone and data/internet.

HTH

[michael.whittle]

Thanks

[stellan]

Ok, 10Gbps uplikns, that is massive bandwitdh... ;)) I still recommend 1Gbps to each switch if there isnt a very good reason for 10Gbps.

And yes WS-C3750G-48PS-S is a good choice. Powerconsumption increase with PoE but not that much.

But depending on bandwidth demand, you should consider WS-C3750G-24PS-S since the 1Gbps line only have 24 copper ports to support instead of 48. If the demand is still 10Gbps then you need to go for 6500 (not sure if 4500 or 4900 have 10Gbps modules). And u need at least one 6500 on each floor. But the price on the pricetag is BIG.

6500 is a chassiebased switch with almost all types of linecards.