Hello everyone

This thread will mainly be for network Engineers and will be an Avenue to help each other with the challenges we face everyday at work. Feel free to come here with your networking problems and we'll all reason together to provide a way out. I'm sure together we can be a lot better than we already are

Everyday at work we get asked for the possible & impossible. Sometimes way out of our area of specialization without an option of saying "no idea" because as far as the management is concerned anybody in the Information Technology field should be versed in everything IT which is practically impossible as It is very broad and wide.

Last week I was given an assignment to find away to add TVs to our network. The idea was to control d stream media to those TV from a single location over the network. I was given a till the end of last week to come up with a comprehensive solution.

Mind you, we're talking about an enterprise network of different layers here with core, distribution, access layer switches, wireless access points, different VLANs, firewall, voice, video, servers and all

Oxone: Last week I was given an assignment to find away to add TVs to our network. The idea was to control d stream media to those TV from a single location over the network. I was given a till the end of last week to come up with a comprehensive solution.

Mind you, we're talking about an enterprise network of different layers here with core, distribution, access layer switches, wireless access points, different VLANs, firewall, voice, video, servers and all

In Network Engineering, I don't know if this is for your class or for work, it is well known that media that consume high bandwidth would have QoS priority. If the Video streaming is over wifi instead of a wired network, typically speaking you would want to place media or devices that will be streaming video on a 5ghz band and devices that will not be doing such intense media streaming on a 2.4ghz band.

I don't necessarily see what VLANs has to do with this as VLANs just allows one to allocate ports on a switch to a different broadcast domain in its own network. You could allocate a VLAN that is meant for TV/Video streaming and allocate highest priority (QoS) to that particular VLAN I guess. If other Network engineers could come in here that would be great. It is a wonder why Cisco has specilisations for CCNA/CCNP Video and CCNA/CCNP Voice.

I just looked at your profile, apparently you are a CCIE.......the industries highest rank for networking. I don't know why you would need anyone's help on here.

The best place to ask this question would be here:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/video?view=discussions or even here:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/ccie_routing_switching?view=discussions


I find that website extremely helpful at times when I run into a question that's difficult. Though like you said, I wouldn't mind this thread being a discussion medium for Network Engineers on Nairaland. We could definitely help one another.

Fulaman198:


In Network Engineering, I don't know if this is for your class or for work, it is well known that media that consume high bandwidth would have QoS priority. If the Video streaming is over wifi instead of a wired network, typically speaking you would want to place media or devices that will be streaming video on a 5ghz band and devices that will not be doing such intense media streaming on a 2.4ghz band.

I don't necessarily see what VLANs has to do with this as VLANs just allows one to allocate ports on a switch to a different broadcast domain in its own network.

Work man not school.

We are talking about a LAN here and not a WAN. Class of service markings happens @ layer 2 while the actual forwarding happens at layer 3. Since the media is restricted to the LAN (1GB), I doubt there would be any need to prioritize the the media since it can handle it. Now the reason I mentioned the VLANs is because the TVs would be mounted in different locations in the complex and VLANs are local to each block. Ofcourse we don't want VLANs broadcast all over the complex so no option of creating a new VLANs for this TVs. Mind you, some locations don't have LAN ports available for those TVs buy there's wireless network everywhere. So it'll have to be a combination of wired and wireless network (we are already in the 2.5Ghz range while the 5Ghz range is free)

First thing that came to mind was actually a wireless transmitter that let's u stream media wirelessly to other receivers but I couldn't find anything that could transmit to multiple receivers over such distance (maximum I saw was 30m)

Oxone:

Work man not school.

We are talking about a LAN here and not a WAN. Class of service markings happens @ layer 2 while the actual forwarding happens at layer 3. Since the media is restricted to the LAN (1GB), I doubt there would be any need to prioritize the the media since it can handle it. Now the reason I mentioned the VLANs is because the TVs would be mounted in different locations in the complex and VLANs are local to each block. Ofcourse we don't want VLANs broadcast all over the complex so no option of creating a new VLANs for this TVs. Mind you, some locations don't have LAN ports available for those TVs buy there's wireless network everywhere. So it'll have to be a combination of wired and wireless network (we are already in the 2.5Ghz range while the 5Ghz range is free)

First thing that came to mind was actually a wireless transmitter that let's u stream media wirelessly to other receivers but I couldn't find anything that could transmit to multiple receivers over such distance (maximum I saw was 30m)

Ok interesting, I would however start to make use of your 5ghz range because there is less interference on that spectrum. Ok, I see that you can not create a separate VLAN for the TVs, that's fine. There should be still a way to set QoS higher for the TVs though right? I love this question, I think I will ask about it too on Cisco's webpage. It's good to hear the views of other Network Engineers.

Fulaman198:

Ok interesting, I would however start to make use of your 5ghz range because there is less interference on that spectrum. Ok, I see that you can not create a separate VLAN for the TVs, that's fine. There should be still a way to set QoS higher for the TVs though right? I love this question, I think I will ask about it too on Cisco's webpage. It's good to hear the views of other Network Engineers.

Well since different VLANs are involved, prioritization would happen at the core switch (cisco 6500) which handles the inter VLAN routing.

Truth is I already found a way to implement this using DLNA technology which can work on existing wireless & wired network. Just have to configure Multicast on the switches the TV would be connected to and the core switch as well. Haven't implemented it yet & I'm sure it'll work. Will put up updates and problems encountered right here as I go

Oxone:

Well since different VLANs are involved, prioritization would happen at the core switch (cisco 6500) which handles the inter VLAN routing.

Truth is I already found a way to implement this using DLNA technology which can work on existing wireless & wired network. Just have to configure Multicast on the switches the TV would be connected to and the core switch as well. Haven't implemented it yet & I'm sure it'll work. Will put up updates and problems encountered right here as I go

DLNA technology and possibly miracast sound like excellent ideas. Please keep us informed

Fulaman198: The best place to ask this question would be here:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/video?view=discussions or even here:

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/community/certifications/ccie_routing_switching?view=discussions


I find that website extremely helpful at times when I run into a question that's difficult. Though like you said, I wouldn't mind this thread being a discussion medium for Network Engineers on Nairaland. We could definitely help one another.

Yeah I visit the site & it helps alot but no two problems are exactly the same and sometimes you don't get the answers you want.

Had a problem with an Cisco Wireless Access point that couldn't find the Wireless LAN controller no matter what I did. Scoured the whole of the Internet for days to find answers but I got none. Most people that had the same problem recommended sending the faulty device back to Cisco but nobody could tell me what was wrong. Being a curious person, I delayed sending it back because I know not knowing would always make me wonder. It took a couple of days but I found the problem. Had to return it finally but there's nothing like having the satisfaction of knowing what went wrong

Oxone:

Yeah I visit the site & it helps alot but no two problems are exactly the same and sometimes you don't get the answers you want.

Had a problem with an Cisco Wireless Access point that couldn't find the Wireless LAN controller no matter what I did. Scoured the whole of the Internet for days to find answers but I got none. Most people that had the same problem recommended sending the faulty device back to Cisco but nobody could tell me what was wrong. Being a curious person, I delayed sending it back because I know not knowing would always make me wonder. It took a couple of days but I found the problem. Had to return it finally but there's nothing like having the satisfaction of knowing what went wrong

I understand, there is nothing wrong with being a curious person seeking knowledge

Fulaman198: I just looked at your profile, apparently you are a CCIE.......the industries highest rank for networking. I don't know why you would need anyone's help on here.

Sorry man, I'm not a CCIE yet. Still working on it though but no hurry.

Taking the CCIE Written exam opened my eyes to what the CCIE entails. Still have a lot to understand & experience before I consider myself ready.

I'm more interested in the skill set than the certification. Maybe I'll make an attempt next year but gathering more experience/exposure is what's most important right now.

Oxone:

Sorry man, I'm not a CCIE yet. Still working on it though but no hurry.

Taking the CCIE Written exam opened my eyes to what the CCIE entails. Still have a lot to understand & experience before I consider myself ready.

I'm more interested in the skill set than the certification. Maybe I'll make an attempt next year but gathering more experience/exposure is what's most important right now.

You will get it for sure, just keep at it

Fulaman198:

You will get it for sure, just keep at it

That's the plan

Interesting thread, multicast will definitely be an option like you suggested. Since the traffic is not in anyway traversing wan and with the mention of 6500 at the core, bandwidth and latency shouldn't be an issue (hopefully your network doesn't have layer2 throttlers) . Please keep us updated on your implementation and if possible, major milestone(s). Thanks.

@Oxone: If your challenge is basically to stream one source to multiple monitors, that's super simple. XBMC or PMS on a server and a smart tv (or regular tv with an android tv stick) solves the problem. I have an lg ln570 smart tv and I stream media to it and all the other devices at home from my wd my net central router/hdd combo effortlessly. Another route is the one taken by the "IT guys" at my office: get extra hdmi cards and looooooong hdmi cables (theoretically, they don't attenuate, but...). The last meansI can think of is to go old skool and stick a tv card and tv sender on the server then just get small antennas for the tvs. Hope this helps...

Use Microsoft Windows Media Server. Get a couple of Smart Tv with Lan card or Wireless card on them.