Voice VLAN

Lesson Contents
 Configuration
 Verification
 Conclusion

In this lesson, we’ll take a look at the Voice VLAN and how it works..

Usually, IP phones sit next to a computer on the same desk. They require the same UTP cables as computers and also use
Ethernet. If we want to connect them to a switch, we have two options.

You could connect the computer and IP phone using two different cables:

This will work but it has some disadvantages:

 You need to install a new cable from the switchport to the IP phone.
 You will lose a switchport for the IP phone.

To solve this, most IP phones (including Cisco) have a three port switch inside of the IP phone:

 One port connects to the switch.

 One port connects to the computer.
 One (internal) port connects to the phone.

This allows us to connect the IP phone and computer like this:

You probably want to separate the data from the computer and IP phone. This is something we can do with voice VLANs.

The Voice VLAN is also known as the Auxiliary VLAN (AUX VLAN)

The computer will be in a data VLAN, the IP phone will be in the voice VLAN. It will look like this:

Behind the scenes, we have a trunk between our switch and IP phone. The port on the IP phone that connects to the computer
is an access port. The IP phone will forward all traffic from the computer to the switch untagged, traffic from the IP phone itself
will be tagged. The only two VLANs that are allowed though, are the access and voice VLAN.

Configuration

If you are familiar with the configuration of VLANs then configuring a voice VLAN is very simple. Let’s configure a switchport
where we use VLAN 100 for the computer and VLAN 101 for our IP phone.

First, we have to create the two VLANs:

SW1(config)#vlan 100

SW1(config-vlan)#name COMPUTER

SW1(config-vlan)#exit
SW1(config)#vlan 101

SW1(config-vlan)#name VOIP

SW1(config-vlan)#exit

Now we can configure the interface:

SW1(config)#interface GigabitEthernet 0/1

SW1(config-if)#switchport mode access

SW1(config-if)#switchport access vlan 100

SW1(config-if)#switchport voice vlan 101

SW1(config-if)#exit

We configure the interface in access mode and use VLAN 100 for the computer. The switchport voice vlan command tells the
switch to use VLAN 101 as the voice VLAN.

We configured the switch but how does the IP phone know which VLANs to use? Cisco IP phones use CDP (Cisco Discovery
Protocol) for this. The IP Phone will learn through CDP which VLANs it should use. Other IP phones sometimes use LLDP (Link
Laye Discovery Protocol) for this.

Verification

Let’s verify our work. You have to use the show interfaces command for this:

SW1#show interfaces GigabitEthernet 0/1 switchport

Name: Gi0/1

Switchport: Enabled

Administrative Mode: static access

Operational Mode: static access

Administrative Trunking Encapsulation: negotiate

Operational Trunking Encapsulation: native

Negotiation of Trunking: Off

Access Mode VLAN: 100 (COMPUTER)

Trunking Native Mode VLAN: 1 (default)

Administrative Native VLAN tagging: enabled

Voice VLAN: 101 (VOIP)

Administrative private-vlan host-association: none

Administrative private-vlan mapping: none

Administrative private-vlan trunk native VLAN: none

Administrative private-vlan trunk Native VLAN tagging: enabled

Administrative private-vlan trunk encapsulation: dot1q

Administrative private-vlan trunk normal VLANs: none

Administrative private-vlan trunk associations: none

Administrative private-vlan trunk mappings: none

Operational private-vlan: none

Trunking VLANs Enabled: ALL

Pruning VLANs Enabled: 2-1001

Capture Mode Disabled

Capture VLANs Allowed: ALL

Protected: false

Unknown unicast blocked: disabled

Unknown multicast blocked: disabled

Appliance trust: none

Above you can see that we are using VLAN 100 for the Computers and VLAN 101 for the IP phones.

We can also take a look at the trunk status. Although this will show us that the interface is not-trunking, it does tell us the two
VLANs that are used:

SW1#show interfaces GigabitEthernet 0/1 trunk

Port Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlan

Gi0/1 off negotiate not-trunking 1

Port Vlans allowed on trunk

Gi0/1 100-101

Port Vlans allowed and active in management domain

Gi0/1 100-101

Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not pruned

Gi0/1 100-101

Above we see that VLAN 100 and 101 are allowed on this interface. Although it shows up as non-trunking, keep in mind that in
reality, this is a trunk.

Conclusion

In this lesson you have learned how to configure the Voice VLAN and how to verify your work. If you have any questions, feel
free to leave a comment in our forum.