Professional call manager QoS

[shork]

Hello everyone,
I am in the course of setting up QoS in my network for a ShoreTel implementation.

Question
Does the Professional call manager tag its packet with dscp values?


Question 2
Is it possible to segment traffic from the Pro Call Manager to a specific voice VLAN?

Thank you!!!

[CT-Pros_Eric]

Call Manager is data, and does not contain any voice traffic. You do not want to put it's traffic in your priority queues. Nor can you.

[cburgy]

Shoretel does not currently offer a feature to mark PCM traffic with a DiffServ value (video excepted, it can mark Video traffic).

That being said, you can absolutely accomplish this. It normally is irrelevant in situations where the HQ or DVS reside in the same LAN environment as the PCM clients. However, in cases where PCM is traversing the WAN, it can make significant sense to prioritize PCM traffic.

Let's assume a two site topology for simplicity (HQ and Remote Site). You'll want to mark traffic from the egress on the HQ side either via a Layer 3 switch that offers this capability or on the router at HQ. Likewise, you'll perform the same marking at the remote location either via the switch or router.

Note, that you'll want to mark it with the appropriate DSCP value. I don't know the specifics of all applications in your environment, but I'll assume no others need to be marked (and subsequently fall into the Best Effort class). You should mark PCM traffic with a value in one of the Assured Forwarding Queues.

Voice payload (RTP stream) will be marked with the EF bit (46/184). You'll need to pay attention to how you design the scheduling in your queues on your routers to accomodate the proper level of service you desire.

QoS can actually get quite complex as you start prioritizing multiple applications.

On the Shoretel server side, it is important that you honor existing DiffServ codepoints (voicemail traffic is marked with EF from the Shoretel server(s)) and then write the rest of the traffic with your AF codepoint.

[CT-Pros_Eric]

If you mark the port on the switch with DSCP, aren't all packets coming out of the server then marked that way? So wouldn't that mean VMAIL, PCM, and even Director? And it's all a moot point if it's not Layer3 traffic.

[cburgy]

If you mark the port on the switch with DSCP, aren't all packets coming out of the server then marked that way? So wouldn't that mean VMAIL, PCM, and even Director? And it's all a moot point if it's not Layer3 traffic.

With enterprise grade switches or routers, no. You can avoid remarking by honoring existing DSCP and marking the remaining traffic with whatever value you deem appropriate.


You are correct, as I mentioned earlier, if this is traffic that just resides on a LAN segment (even if you cross broadcast domains but stay within the confines of a switched infrastructure - including routed traffic on L3 switches), it really isn't much of a concern. QOS only matters where congestion occurs, most often in WAN links. Hence the previous example apply to a 2 site deployment scenario with Director being at one location and no DVS at a second.

This is actually a very real scenario if you centralize Internet access out of one location (a colo) as well as your primary services (voice, main data applications, etc.).

Something as simple as starting a large download through a shared pipe can wreak havoc for any traffic sharing the BE class.

[shork]

Professional call manager (with soft phone) and VLANs

Hello everyone,
I am in the course of setting up QoS in my network for a ShoreTel implementation.

Question
Does the Professional call manager tag its packet with dscp values?


Question 2
Is it possible to segment traffic from the Pro Call Manager to a specific voice VLAN?

Thank you!!!

Hello thanks for the information. My main concern is the Profession call manager (Soft phone) We intend to implement VLANs for the desk phones but I would like to know if the Professional call manager (with soft phone) can be assigned to a voice vlan. Does it use the same IP address as the computer it is on or otherwise? How can one accomplish this?
The DVM server is also in another location.