Managed vs Unmanaged in a small business netowrk adding VOIP

[RobinBones]

This is our current office setup.

24 Port 10/100/1000 - connected to about 10 PCs, several servers
||||-24 Port 10/100/1000 - connected to about 15 PCs
|||-12 Port 10/100 - connected to 5 PCs
||-12 Port 10/100 - connected to 5 PCs
|-12 Port 10/100 - connected to 5 PCs

We are moving to a VOIP phone system, and I am working on a quote for the project, I'm trying to figure out what changes we need in our network.


I was thinking of something more along the lines of this

12 Port 10/100/1000 - servers
|||||- 24 Port 10/100 POE (Gigabit uplink)
||||- 24 Port 10/100 POE (Gigabit uplink)
|||-12 Port 10/100
||-12 Port 10/100
|-12 Port 10/100

I was told by one source that I want to use VLAN tagging on the phones.
Is that a good suggestion, and does that require the main switch (12 port gigabit) to be smart, or all the switched on the network?

For a network this size, do I need managed switches, and if so, all or how many?
Is there anything else I should look for like Jumbo Frames?

Thanks, Robin

 

[thiggins]

I would think you'd want at least "smart", i.e. simpler managed switches.

Yes, using VLANs to separate VoIP traffic is a good idea. You might want to look at this thread for a similar discussion.

 

[RobinBones]

Thanks for the response, I am and have been using pfSense at our office for a few years now (m0n0wall before that) with great success.

Just to clarify, to allow VLAN tagging, from the PBX to the Phone, I need at least smart switches from the server to the headset?

If the main difference (for my purposes) between smart and managed is creating QOS rules, then I think the main switch used is the only one that needs to be managed.

Since the PC plugs into the Phone, it seems like the phone will make sure that it's data is higher priority than the PC, and QOS on those secondary switch ports wouldn't do much? this is just a guess and I can be way off on that.

Since the uplink from all the secondary switches are 1000, and all the other ports are 10/100, it seems that QOS from the secondary switches to the primary switch will not be an issue either?

I just want to make sure that if I spend the money for smart and managed switches, I take advantage of whatever features they offer. I don't want to spend a lot of money, not configure it, and I get the same results as un-managed.

12 Port 10/100/1000 - Managed
|||||- 24 Port 10/100 Smart POE (Gigabit uplink)
||||- 24 Port 10/100 Smart POE (Gigabit uplink)
|||-12 Port 10/100 Smart (Gigabit uplink)
||-12 Port 10/100 Smart (Gigabit uplink)
|-12 Port 10/100 Smart (Gigabit uplink)

 

[thiggins]

The only difference between "smart" and "managed" switches is in the specific features each supports. For some products, there is very little practical difference.

If you have a busy LAN, priority-based QoS should help the reliability / quality of your VoIP traffic, no matter whether the switches are 10/100 or Gigabit.

If you're ok with all the ports on a downstream switch being in the same VLAN, then the downstream switch can be unmanaged. But smart switches give you the option of controlling each port, including something as simple as enabling/disabling.

Just to clarify, to allow VLAN tagging, from the PBX to the Phone, I need at least smart switches from the server to the headset?

Most unmanaged switches support VLAN tags, meaning they pass the packet with the tag intact. But be sure to check the switch specs.

Since the PC plugs into the Phone, it seems like the phone will make sure that it's data is higher priority than the PC, and QOS on those secondary switch ports wouldn't do much? this is just a guess and I can be way off on that.

Depends on how QoS is being done. The phone is probably just tagging its packets. This alone doesn't do anything unless a switch or router can read the tags and handle the packets accordingly. See this article for further discussion.