U-verse + IGMPv3 snooping, and router/switch architeture

[SamS]

Hi all,

So I just reconfigured my home LAN, basically from scratch. You can see a crappy picture here:

I know from experience that my wireless access point has to use a port on my HGV3801 U-verse router, because of the necessary IGMP Snooping. I'm wondering just how much my LAN performance is degraded because none of my other switches offer IGMP snooping.

Here is my config:

• 1 port on the U-verse router to my Wireless Access Point
• 1 port on the U-verse router to my D-Link DGS-1024D switch
• 1 port(s) on the DGS-1024 switch to room drops
• Room drops connect to either a TRENDNet TEG-S80G or Netgear GS108 8-port gigabit switches.
• U-verse STBs or DVR connect to those 8-port switches

So, each STB has to go through the 8-port switch in the room, as well as the main D-Link 24-port switch at the rack, before it gets back to the U-verse router. So far, this hasn't caused too many problems, I'm just wondering if the U-verse multi-cast is flooding all the switches and slowing things down along the way.

Can anyone recommend a different design? Adding a direct drop for each STB is not really a good option for me at this time. Regardless, I have 3 STBs + WAP, so I'd be short on router ports even if I could connect each STB directly to the router.

 

[SamS]

Doing some more reading, I probably need to go ahead and bite the bullet and set up some VLANs. I'm a bit leery of this initially, as I'm not experiencing any subjective slowdowns from the multi-cast traffic. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing?

Recommendations for a 24 port managed switch with VLAN support, plus qty 3 of an 8-port model are welcome. Remember, this is for my house, so I don't need VPN, etc., so I want to keep costs waaay down.

 

[SamS]

Just as an update: I actually set up two LANs within the house. One just for the multicast traffic (GST108 off a port on the U-verse router, then to dedicated drops for each TV), then a connection from U-verse router to D-Link DES-1024D switch to handle all other traffic. This was a great free solution to my situation. Minus the effort of getting a dedicated drop to each TV location, of course.

 

[tipstir]

AT&T 2Wire UVerse Router this what you have right. Interesting setup there with the Rack Cabinet. Just got model like a small scale from network closet. I take it you have 802.11g network, 802.11n network, 100m-bit network and 1000m-bit. Are you running all dedicated lines through that one DLINK switch?

 

[SamS]

AT&T 2Wire UVerse Router this what you have right. Interesting setup there with the Rack Cabinet. Just got model like a small scale from network closet. I take it you have 802.11g network, 802.11n network, 100m-bit network and 1000m-bit. Are you running all dedicated lines through that one DLINK switch?

It is a bit more simple than that.

The U-verse IPTV router (HGV3801) has 4 ports with IGMPv3 snooping for multicast.

• Port 1 goes to a dedicated 8-port gigabit switch (GST108) that handles dedicated drops (3) for U-verse IPTV. This is technically its own 100Mbit LAN.
• Port 2 goes to the D-Link 1024D 24-port gigabit switch that handles all ethernet connected devices via dedicated lines, i.e. PCs. Since the ports on the U-verse router know that none of these connected devices request multicast traffic, nothing on this switch gets flooded with my IPTV/multicast traffic.
• Port 3 goes to my WAP - Cisco 4410N. As above, the port on this U-verse router realizes the WAP does not need multi-cast traffic, so it can distribute internet and route traffic to all G/N devices that use WiFi.

 

[Compstuff]

Indeed very interesting and you now have me thinking about my new home network design.

 

[SamS]

Indeed very interesting and you now have me thinking about my new home network design.

I was fortunate enough to "redesign" my entire home network from scratch, even though I just moved into my house 3 years ago, which is also when I had my initial U-verse installation.

I probably planned out the architecture for ~2 months before I really got started on it.

I love having the separate hardware LANs. Everything works smoothly. The key is having at least 2 drops per room, and a good location for your home run. I only use WiFi for truly portable devices, and the behavior of my Cat6-connected devices is very predictable.

 

[Compstuff]

I am in a similar situation. I moved into a my new house and I am now doing the design work for my system.

I don't want to hijack your thread so I will start my own and would appreciate any advice you may have

I was fortunate enough to "redesign" my entire home network from scratch, even though I just moved into my house 3 years ago, which is also when I had my initial U-verse installation.

I probably planned out the architecture for ~2 months before I really got started on it.

I love having the separate hardware LANs. Everything works smoothly. The key is having at least 2 drops per room, and a good location for your home run. I only use WiFi for truly portable devices, and the behavior of my Cat6-connected devices is very predictable.

 

[SamS]

I am in a similar situation. I moved into a my new house and I am now doing the design work for my system.

I don't want to hijack your thread so I will start my own and would appreciate any advice you may have

Sure, I hope I can be of some help.

When I started, I was a bit green, i.e. I had never terminated Category cable before, although I pulled plenty of wire. By the time I was all done, I felt like a pro!

The biggest surprise was the expense, from re-designing the network. By the time I bought a new equipment cabinet, cable, tools, shelves, wall plates, jacks, and associated equipment, I'm sure it was $1,000. It's OK, because I feel confident it should last 10+ years without any major changes.

One other thing.... it took a lot of free time, running wires, building the rack, setting up the gear, etc. I had to take a few days off work to actually get it all done. It was basically "starting from scratch", because I pulled up/out all the existing wiring locations to the new home run. And I did it all myself, so there was a lot of up-and-down to the attic and back

Good luck, I'll look for your thread and I hope I can offer a bit of help based on my recent experiences.