Cisco IP Communicator

[fargier]

Hi all,

Some questions about Cisco IP Communicator Software:

- What do you think about this Software?

- Does it support 802.1q? I think that I need a NIC card working with 802.1q. Is it correct?

Thats a lot.

[Brandon Buffin]

Trying changing the NIC in Preferences > Network > Device Name.

[dalao]

Hi Brandon,

Sorry for the delay, I was on holidays.

I don't understand because in an earlier message, you said :

"There is no add on. All voice traffic from IPC will be in the data VLAN. Take a look at the following section of the QoS SRND linked below.

Campus QoS Design -> Catalyst 2970/3560/3750 - Untrusted PC + Softphone with Scavenger-Class QoS Model

QoS SRND

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/solution/esm/qossrnd.pdf

As also mentioned in this document, you can use the "auto qos voip cisco-softphone" command to generate a baseline QoS config that will take the softphone into account.

Hope this helps. If so, please rate the post."

So you said that is impossible to separate data and voice trafic with IPC. Is it exact ?

Regards,

Davy

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi Davy

It's a PC application; it's just not practical to have a Windows client machine on multiple subnets at once for several reasons.

Use one IP address, one NIC, allow the CIPC to bind to that NIC, and configure your network to trust and police the ingress voice and signalling traffic in line with what is in the SRND.

Regards

Aaron

Please rate helpful posts...

[dalao]

Hi,

Thanks you for your answer.

But my network is not a Cisco LAN, but a Nortel LAN.

So I can't apply the QoS command.

Even if there are several problems, for you, is it possible to separate data and voice trafic with IPC ?

With 802.1q on PC for example ?

Regards,

Davy

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi

Your Nortel switches will presumably support QoS for PC based applications; you would need to research the configuration required in the Nortel docs/forums to identify a similar configuration.

I'm not aware of anyone using CIPC in that fashion; having multiple NICs or dot1q interfaces on a Windows PC is just not a desirable setup. It is virtually guaranteed to cause you all sorts of problems with other applications further down the line. If some other data app ends up using your VVLAN there's a chance that some security or routing issue is going to break that app..

Regards

Aaron

[dalao]

Ok.

But with this method, a broacast flood can produce on the network.

[Aaron Harrison]

A broadcase flood can appear on the network regardless of the config of any one particular host on the network. Can you explain more what you believe the problem is?

[dalao]

Hi,

In fact, if the IPC trafic is on the same VLAN as the PC trafic, we have no segmentation.

So If we have a problem on the DATA VLAN, it will impact the IPC communication, while it would be not the case if the IPC trafic was in a segmented VLAN.

Regards,

Davy

[Aaron Harrison]

If you have an endpoint connected to two VLANs via a dot1q trunk, a broadcast storm in either VLAN could cause you problems as they both share the same wire/bandwidth... so you have two potential sources of problems instead of one.

It's beside the point anyway - put your PCs in the data VLAN only, and run the CIPC from the data VLAN on a single IP. That is the standard deployment, and the only supportable deployment I'm aware of.

Regards

Aaron

[dalao]

Hi,

[If you have an endpoint connected to two VLANs via a dot1q trunk, a broadcast storm in either VLAN could cause you problems as they both share the same wire/bandwidth... so you have two potential sources of problems instead of one.]

==> Even if I configure QoS on the port and storm control ?

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi

If you protect the traffic with such measures for one VLAN, what is to stop you protecting the other VLAN? Those measures are not things you can use ONLY on the voice VLAN.

Aaron

[dalao]

If you protect the traffic with such measures for one VLAN, what is to stop you protecting the other VLAN?

==> Because the Voice VLAN is the most important, in order to have the telephony service always available, even if a broadcast storm occurs in the Data VLAN.

Thank you for your help.

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi

Your aim should be to protect legitimate traffic (including voice, but also including data) from excessively bulky or problem traffic. That doesn't mean you protect voice and everything else has to suffer.

Generally (at least on Cisco) your QoS is based on DSCP markings once it is classified, not on VLANs.

If your PC is connected to the data VLAN and a broadcast storm occurs, it's likely that it will experience issues such as high CPU usage that will render the CIPC unusable regardless of whether the RTP is getting through to the PC.

These are all side issues though, the main issues are around the supportability of a large number of Windows PCs running in two VLANs simultaneously.

Best of luck.

Aaron