The Custom Integrator Show Installment 00D

The Custom Integrator Show Installment 00D is live.  In this Installment, we will discuss home network hardware considerations.  We have found that, next to Digital Cable Tuners and CableCARDs, networking related issues are the biggest problem for custom integrators.  Even if you are an enterprise IT kind of person, there are tricky network considerations that come into play when streaming “timing sensitive” content around the home that previously have not been addressed in the business world.

[mp3]http://blip.tv/file/get/IanDixon-TheCustomIntergratorShow00D935.mp3[/mp3]

Direct Download – Subscribe via RSS – Subscribe via iTunes – Subscribe with Zune

We are doing something a little different for the next couple of Installments.  We are soliciting feedback from your “real life” examples of network hardware implementations via this blog site(http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/blogs/custom/archive/2009/05/05/Installment-00D-of-The-Custom-Integrator-Show.aspx) to use as the basis for our discussions on the Podcast.  Although we could get input using a survey form, we really are more interested in comments justifying a particular answer.  Naturally, we encourage you to listen to the Podcast so you can understand the context of the questions.  Our guess is that the answers will be all over the map, but that is what will make for good discussions regarding this topic.  We want to understand what integrators are finding works well in the field (enthusiasts are more than welcome to comment, too).  As mentioned, our interest is in the reasons behind your particular evaluation criteria, design and configuration philosophies, hardware choices, and testing procedures.  Please provide at least some level of detailed technical input in your comments.  A bulletized list always seems to work the best (the questions are numbered to make them easier to reference).  You do not have to answer all of them, we are just trying to get an idea of the overall demographics in the field so we can target our discussions a little better.  Thanks for your help and participation!

1) Do you use “professionally managed” Ethernet switches or just “off the shelf store brand” ones?  Have you seen differences or have had problems with the “cheapo” brands?  What improvements have managed switches made for you or what problems did they actually solve?

2) What criteria do you use in selecting which Ethernet switches to use and what are some of the minimal values you use in that decision-making process?

     A) Per port buffer size

     B) Overall switch buffer size

     C) Overall switching fabric speed

     D) Overall number of Packets per Second that can be filtered and forwarded (especially for Gigabit)

     E) Support for “high speed” interconnects between switches instead of just using a “standard speed” link port to link port approach

     F) Support for traffic prioritization (QoS tags)

     G) Ability to enable Internet Group Membership Protocol (IGMP) for support of multicast configurations

     H) Ability to enable Port Mirroring (for promiscuous mode monitoring and troubleshooting)

     I) Ability to enable logging with filters for troubleshooting purposes

2) Do you manually set a link’s speed and flow control?  Why do you need to do that instead of letting it auto negotiate?

3) Are you enabling UPnP functionality on your routers?

4) Are you using the Ethernet ports in the router supplied by the ISP as one of the main switches in your infrastructure or do you only use a single one only as a way to connect the router to your managed switch architecture?

5) Are you using DHCP reservations for assigning static IP addresses for the network or do you configure these manually on the devices themselves?

6) Are you using the ISP provided router for managing and delivering the DHCP leases for the network or do you implement your DHCP scopes using a separate DHCP Server like the one that comes with Windows Home Server?

7) Do you enable multicast on your wired network (for something like IP-based audio)?  What about your wireless?  How has that affected the actual performance?  Has it made a negative impact on your wireless when it is enabled?

8) Do you manually enable Spanning Tree Protocols when incorporating multiple Ethernet switches into you designs?  Have you noticed a difference in streaming performance (especially for IP-based distributed audio) once it is enabled?

9) Are you installing Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches?  Are you using a separate smaller switch for PoE connections or getting switches with PoE on all ports?  Are you using PoE injectors instead for only those devices that need it?  Have you had any problems with overall current drain when using multiple PoE-based devices?

A) Are you specifically leveraging IPv6 for your designs?  Are you enabling IPv6 capabilities in your routers?  If so, for what?  What impact has IPv6 had on your network configurations?  Why are you planning for it?

B) Are you planning to implement Internet-based remote device streaming using the Windows 7 HomeGroup feature?

As you can see, there are a lot of considerations.  Some may seem a bit esoteric for smaller installations, but we still see them as important when designing, configuring, and optimizing your Ethernet-based infrastructures for your clients.  We look forward to reading the responses and seeing what really is going on in the field and hope to provide a more complete demographic rundown on a future blog post.

  =D-