Avaya IP Phones, SonicWall, Site to Site VPN
Hello Experts,
We work with a medical office that has four locations. Each location has Avaya IP phones except one. Their VoIP Server is hosted in one of their four locations, and the other three communicate to that VoIP Server over Site-to-Site VPNs using SonicWall TZ 300s. The office where the VoIP Server is uses digital phones instead of IP, so they don't have any issues. In the other locations though they use IP phones. The largest of the three has about 25-30 phones, another one has six and the last one has five. The issue is that in the largest location where they have the most phones they have constant issues with quality on their phone lines. The calls will cut out, or drop entirely. Here are the details:
Location A
Avaya IP Office Server -> Cisco Catalyst Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 75/15 Business Internet
Location B
Avaya IP Phones -> Aruba 2530 Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 75/15 Business Internet -> Site A IP Office
Location C
Avaya IP Phones -> Dell PowerConnect Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 75/15 Business Internet -> Site A IP Office
Location D
Avaya IP Phones -> HP Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 100/20 Business Internet -> Site A IP Office
I do know the best way to do this is via QOS. The question I have is whether to do it with VLANs (which get stripped away as soon as it hits the WAN), Address Objects, Service Objects, BWM and so on.
What would be the ideal configuration for this environment, using what's available already? In about three months a Comcast ENS circuit will be put in place, so everything will be configured and prioritized using VLANs at that time, but I need a solution prior to that even if it's temporary.
Thank you for your time.
We work with a medical office that has four locations. Each location has Avaya IP phones except one. Their VoIP Server is hosted in one of their four locations, and the other three communicate to that VoIP Server over Site-to-Site VPNs using SonicWall TZ 300s. The office where the VoIP Server is uses digital phones instead of IP, so they don't have any issues. In the other locations though they use IP phones. The largest of the three has about 25-30 phones, another one has six and the last one has five. The issue is that in the largest location where they have the most phones they have constant issues with quality on their phone lines. The calls will cut out, or drop entirely. Here are the details:
Location A
Avaya IP Office Server -> Cisco Catalyst Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 75/15 Business Internet
Location B
Avaya IP Phones -> Aruba 2530 Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 75/15 Business Internet -> Site A IP Office
Location C
Avaya IP Phones -> Dell PowerConnect Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 75/15 Business Internet -> Site A IP Office
Location D
Avaya IP Phones -> HP Switch -> TZ 300 -> Comcast 100/20 Business Internet -> Site A IP Office
I do know the best way to do this is via QOS. The question I have is whether to do it with VLANs (which get stripped away as soon as it hits the WAN), Address Objects, Service Objects, BWM and so on.
What would be the ideal configuration for this environment, using what's available already? In about three months a Comcast ENS circuit will be put in place, so everything will be configured and prioritized using VLANs at that time, but I need a solution prior to that even if it's temporary.
Thank you for your time.
SOLUTION
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BWM is very easy to configure and will probably make an immediate difference. After turning it on, By default all traffic will be medium priority so just make the address object frr VoIP high.
We have implemented similar configs, and if the ISP speeds at that office and the server locations are not sufficient, you will see exactly the problem you are describing.
What are the ISP connection speeds at each office, and what type of connection is it (DSL, cable modem, T1, FIOS etc)? For an office with 30 phones and other traffice you should probably have a 50MB ISP connection to be safe.
What are the ISP connection speeds at each office, and what type of connection is it (DSL, cable modem, T1, FIOS etc)? For an office with 30 phones and other traffice you should probably have a 50MB ISP connection to be safe.
ASKER
Ian Arakel: Internet connectivity and VPN connectivity from Site B to Site A works fine and has for quite some time. The issue is that the VoIP phones at Site B are suffering from very poor call quality, but they do work.
Aaron Tomosky: Have you successfully implemented BWM in this sort of environment before? On three separate occasions we've tried to do this and it didn't seem to cause any improvement at all. Perhaps we're doing something wrong. Is there a good step-by-step guide to implementing BWM for this sort of environment?
carlmd: In both Site A and Site B, they have a Comcast Cable connection that is best effort at 75 MBps / 15 MBps. I don't believe the bandwidth is the issue here, since a VoIP phone call only uses 128 KBps. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your response?
Aaron Tomosky: Have you successfully implemented BWM in this sort of environment before? On three separate occasions we've tried to do this and it didn't seem to cause any improvement at all. Perhaps we're doing something wrong. Is there a good step-by-step guide to implementing BWM for this sort of environment?
carlmd: In both Site A and Site B, they have a Comcast Cable connection that is best effort at 75 MBps / 15 MBps. I don't believe the bandwidth is the issue here, since a VoIP phone call only uses 128 KBps. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your response?
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Whereas a single call can consume 128 KBps in the ideal environmnet, when used in conjuncton with normal data traffic it can be much more. Also, if you look at concurrent calls (10 or 20 or 30 extensions in use at once) the bandwidth use increases at higher rate then just multiplying 128 by the callers.
A good test is to have someone in the office with the problem make a call at off hours, when the circuit is experiencing little traffic. If that call is ok, and during normal hours the calls break up, then it is a bandwidth issue.
Have you tested the speed of the cable connection from that office? Try using speedtest.net and see if it is what you think it should be. Also pingtest.net for a quality test.
Cable modems sometimes can benefit from a reboot if they have been on for a long time. Simply pull the plug, wait 10 seconds, and put it back in.
A good test is to have someone in the office with the problem make a call at off hours, when the circuit is experiencing little traffic. If that call is ok, and during normal hours the calls break up, then it is a bandwidth issue.
Have you tested the speed of the cable connection from that office? Try using speedtest.net and see if it is what you think it should be. Also pingtest.net for a quality test.
Cable modems sometimes can benefit from a reboot if they have been on for a long time. Simply pull the plug, wait 10 seconds, and put it back in.
bad call quality is usually down to out of order packets or high jitter
have you tried running mtr over the link to see how much the delay changes under load ?
have you tried running mtr over the link to see how much the delay changes under load ?
ASKER
BWM, once properly implemented with LAN > WAN rules using the varying levels of priority (Realtime to Extremely Low) resolved the call quality issues per a test we ran yesterday.
Have you verified the internet connectivity of the location with the highest number of IP phones.
Is there anything else that you connect via VPN from that stated location to Site A?