Avaya Solution & Interoperability Test Lab

Configuring Extreme Networks Summit X250e-48p Switch

and Extreme Networks Summit X450e-24p Switch for
Quality of Service with Avaya 9608, 9611G, 9621G, and
9641G SIP Telephones – Issue 1.0

Abstract

These Application Notes describe the Quality of Service configuration of the Extreme
Networks Summit X250e-48p Switch and Extreme Networks Summit X450e-24p Switch, to
support the Avaya 9608, 9611G, 9621G, and 9641G SIP Telephones registered to Avaya
Aura® Session Manager.

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1. Introduction
These Application Notes describe the Quality of Service configuration of the Extreme Networks
Summit X250e-48p Switch and Extreme Networks Summit X450e-24p Switch, to support the
Avaya 9608, 9611G, 9621G, and 9641G SIP Telephones registered to Avaya Aura® Session
Manager.

Quality of Service allows for the prioritization of voice traffic over data traffic, by tagging voice
packets with priority information that allow switches to differentiate the traffic and deliver it in a
more expeditious manner. Two common methods are DiffServ (Layer 3) and 802.1p (Layer 2).
Avaya SIP Telephones and Extreme Networks switches support both methods.

The 96x1 SIP Telephones are part of the 96xx family. They build on existing 96xx functionality
and user interface concepts. They run on a Wind River Linux Operating System and provide
better performance at a lower cost than the 96xx phones.

Four models of the 96x1 SIP Telephones were used in this interoperability test. They are 9608,
9611G, 9621G, and 9641G. (The 9608 SIP Telephone is considered a 96x1 phone because it
runs the same next generation firmware as other phone types). The following table shows their
physical attributes:

9608 9611G 9621G 9641G

Buttons 8 8 NA NA
Touch screen No No Yes Yes
Color No No Yes Yes
Display 3.8” 3.8” 4.3” 4.7”
Switch 10/100 10/100 GigE GigE
USB No No No Yes
Bluetooth No No No Yes
Wideband Handset, headset Handset, headset Yes Yes
Speaker Yes Yes Yes-Wideband Yes-Wideband
Button Mod Int. Yes Yes No Yes

These Application Notes focus on the configuration of the Avaya 96x1 SIP Telephones and
Extreme Networks switches. The configuration of Avaya Aura® Session Manager and Avaya
Aura® Communication Manager to support the Avaya 96x1 SIP Telephones is not described.

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A Layer 3 network was configured for the test, as shown on Figure 1. On each Extreme
Networks switch a voice vlan and a data vlan were configured to support the 96x1 telephones. A
third vlan (interswitch) was configured for an inter-switch link on each Extreme Networks
switch as well. In addition, on the Extreme Networks Summit x450-24p switch a fourth vlan
(SM) was configured to support connectivity to the System Manager, Session Manager, and
Communication Manager. In order to generate background data traffic, a traffic generator was
used to pump a 100Mpbs bi-directional data stream through the network and saturate the 10
Mbps inter-switch link.

Figure 1: QOS Configuration

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2. Equipment and Software Validated
The following equipment and software were used for the test configuration:

EQUIPMENT SOFTWARE/FIRMWARE VERSION

HP ProLiant DL360 G7 Server Avaya Aura® Session Manager 6.1.1 (Build
No. – 6.1.1.0.611023-6.1.1.611017)
Del PowerEdge R610 Server Avaya Aura® System Manager: 6.1.5.0
(Build No. – 6.1.0.0.7345-6.1.5.9)
(Avaya Aura® System Platform: 6.0.3.0.3)
Avaya S8300D Server with Avaya G450 Media Avaya Aura® Communication Manager
Gateway 6.0.1,
R016x.00.1.510.1, Patch 18621
(Avaya Aura® System Platform: 6.0.2.1.5)
Avaya one-X® Deskphone Edition 9608 SIP 6.0.0
Telephone (S96x1_SALBR6_0_V452.tar)
Avaya one-X® Deskphone Edition 9611G SIP 6.0.0
Telephone (S96x1_SALBR6_0_V452.tar)
Avaya one-X® Deskphone Edition 9621G SIP 6.0.0
Telephone (S96x1_SALBR6_0_V452.tar)
Avaya one-X® Deskphone Edition 9641G SIP 6.0.0
Telephone (S96x1_SALBR6_0_V452.tar)
Extreme Networks Summit X450e-24p Extreme XOS v12.0.3.16
Extreme Networks Summit X250e-48p Extreme XOS v12.0.1.11

3. Configuration of the Avaya 96x1 SIP Telephones

The Avaya 96x1 SIP Telephones get their QOS settings from the 46xxsettings file. When the
46xxsettings file is not present during firmware download or no explicit settings are included for
the QOS parameters, default QOS settings are used. These Application Notes used the following
QOS settings for the test:

Layer 2 802.1p parameters:

 L2Q 0 (Auto)
 L2QAUD 6
 L2QSIG 6

Layer 3 DiffServ parameters:

 DSCPAUD 46
 DSCPSIG 34

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4. Configuration of the Extreme Networks Switches
The configuration steps below focus on the basic commands used for configuring QoS on the
Extreme Networks switches. Additional configuration details are available in the ExtremeXOS
Command Reference Guide [4].

Both the Extreme Networks Summit X250e-48p and Extreme Networks Summit X450e-24p use
the Extreme XOS, and therefore the commands listed here apply to both switches.

4.1. Configuration of VLANs for Avaya SIP Telephones

In the test configuration, a voice vlan and data vlan were created on each Extreme Networks
switch for the tested telephones. Port 3 and 4 of the switch were assigned to both vlans. The
telephones were manually configured to send the voice vlan tag for both signaling and RTP
traffic.

The following commands show the creation of the vlans and assignment of ports to the vlans.

# create vlan voice2

# configure vlan voice2 tag 110
# configure vlan voice2 ipaddress 10.64.54.1 255.255.255.0
# configure vlan voice2 add port 3-4 tagged
# create vlan data2
# configure vlan data2 tag 111
# configure vlan data2 ipaddress 10.64.55.1 255.255.255.0
# configure vlan data2 add port 3-4 tagged

4.2. Configure Dot1p QoS

The Extreme Networks switches support the function to map the Dot1p tag in voice packets to
one of eight QoS profiles (QP1 to QP8 with QP8 being the highest priority profile). The QoS
profile determines which queue of a port the egress traffic will be put in. When the switch is
running in the “strict priority” mode, the data in the higher priority queues gets served first.

Enabling Dot1p QoS examination for an Avaya SIP Telephone involves three steps:
1. A QoS profile has to be created using a “create qosprofile” command (except QP1 and QP8
which are pre-defined in the factory default configuration).
2. Use the “configure dot1p type value qosprofile” command to specify the Dot1p QoS
mapping for the switch.
3. Enable Dot1p QoS using the “enable dot1p examination” command for the port that the
phones are connected to.

The following are commands that were executed in the test configuration. It shows that a QoS
profile QP7 was created, Dot1p value 6 was mapped to QP7, and Dot1p QoS examination was
enabled for port 3 and 4.

# create qosprofile QP7

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# config dot1p type 6 qosprofile QP7
# enable dot1p examination port 3-4

If Dot1p QoS is not needed, the following command disables Dot1p QoS for traffic coming from
port 3 and 4.

# disable dot1p examination port 3-4

4.3. Configure DiffServ QoS

The Extreme Networks switches also support mapping the Differentiated Services Code Point
(DSCP) field in the header of IP packets to one of eight QoS profiles (QP1 to QP8). Similar to
the Dot1p case, the QoS profile determines which queue of a port the egress traffic will be put in,
which in turn determines the sequence the traffic will be served.

The steps to enable DiffServ QoS are also similar to those for enabling Dot1p. Before a
particular QoS profile is referenced, it has to be created first (except QP1 and QP8 which are pre-
defined in the factory default configuration). The “configure diffserv code-point value
qosprofile” command is used to specify the DiffServ QoS mapping for the switch. Finally, the
“enable diffserv examination” command is used to enable DiffServ QoS for the port that the
phones are connected to.

In the test configuration, the Avaya SIP Telephones used different DiffServ code-points for the
signaling and media traffic. Therefore, two QoS profiles and two separate mappings were
configured to allow QoS treatment for the two types of traffic (34  QP5 and 46  QP6). The
last command shows that DiffServ QoS examination was enabled for traffic from port 3 and 4.

# create qosprofile QP5

# config diffserv code-point 34 qosprofile QP5
# create qosprofile QP6
# config diffserv code-point 46 qosprofile QP6
# enable diffserv examination port 3-4

If DiffServ QoS is not needed, the following command disables DiffServ QoS for traffic coming
from port 3 and 4.

# disable diffserv examination port 3-4

It is observed that when both Dot1p and DiffServ QoS were enabled on the Extreme Networks
switch, the Dot1P QoS would take precedence.

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5. Verification Steps
5.1. Verify Dot1p Tags and DiffServ Code Points
Originate a call from an Avaya SIP Telephone. Use Wireshark to capture a signaling packet and
a RTP packet and verify that proper Dot1p and DiffServ tagging are included in the packets. The
tags should be consistent with the values in the 46xxsettings file.

The following screenshot is for a signaling packet. The packet was captured at the port that
connected to the originating phone. It shows that Dot1p value 6 and DiffServ code-point 34 were
specified in the header. Please note that when the Extreme switch is configured for routing
between VLANs (i.e., Layer 3 configuration), mirrored traffic as shown below reflects
modifications performed at Layer 2 for routing purposes. That is the reason why the packet
shows that the Layer 2 origination and destination ports are Extreme switch ports and the vlan ID
is the internal ID that is designated to the SM vlan.

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The following screenshot is for a RTP packet. The packet was captured at the port that connected
to the originating phone. It shows that the Dot1p value 6 and DiffServ code-point 46 are
specified in the header. Please note that when the Extreme switch is configured for routing
between VLANs (i.e., Layer 3 configuration), mirrored traffic as shown below reflects
modifications performed at Layer 2 for routing purposes. That is the reason why the packet
shows that the Layer 2 origination and destination ports are Extreme switch ports and the vlan ID
is the internal ID that is designated to the interswitch vlan.

5.2. Verify QoS Operations When Dot1p Is Enabled

When Dot1p is enabled, originate a call from an Avaya SIP Telephone connected to the Extreme
Networks Summit X250e-48p Switch to an Avaya SIP Telephone connected to the Extreme
Networks Summit X450e-24p Switch. Verify that the call setup is successful. Run the “show
port 40 qosmonitor” command on the X250e-48p Switch where port 40 is used for the inter-
switch link. The result shows that in addition to the QP1 traffic that represents the background
data traffic, there is QP7 traffic which represents the packets transmitted during the initial call
establishment.

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Once the call is answered, verify that audio paths work in both directions and voice quality is
good. Run the “show port 40 qosmonitor” command on the X250e-48p Switch again. The result
shows that additional QP7 traffic (media traffic) has gone through.

5.3. Verify QoS Operations When DiffServ Is Enabled

When DiffServ is enabled, originate a call from an Avaya SIP Telephone connected to the
Extreme Networks Summit X250e-48p Switch to an Avaya SIP Telephone connected to the
Extreme Networks Summit X450e-24p Switch. Verify that the call setup is successful. Run the
“show port 40 qosmonitor” command on the X250e-48p Switch. The result shows that in
addition to the QP1 traffic that represents the background data traffic, there is QP5 and QP6
traffic which represent the packets transmitted during the initial call establishment. The QP5
traffic is the signaling traffic. The QP6 traffic includes RTP traffic for ringback tone.

Once the call is connected, verify that audio paths work in both directions and voice quality is
good. Run the “show port 40 qosmonitor” command on the X250e-48p Switch again. The result
shows that additional QP6 traffic (media traffic) has gone through.

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6. Observations
With both DiffServ and 802.1p examination disabled in the switch, it was observed that signaling
and RTP traffic were still prioritized at the QP7 level. Calls could be placed successfully and the
voice quality was good. According to Extreme Networks this was working as designed.
However, Extreme Networks always expects for some type of QoS to be enabled, in which case
the QOS level will follow what was configured in the switch.

7. Conclusion
These Application Notes described the Quality of Service configuration of the Avaya 96x1 IP
Telephones including 9608, 9611G, 9621G, and 9641G with Extreme Networks switches. The
Extreme Networks switches were able to provide QoS for the Avaya IP Telephones to work
properly.

8. Additional References
The Avaya product documentation is available at http://support.avaya.com.
The Extreme Networks documentation is available at http://www.extremenetworks.com.

[1] Administering Avaya Aura™ Communication Manager Release 6.0, Issue 6.0, June 2010,
Document ID 03-300509

[2] Administering Avaya Aura™ System Manager, Release 6.0, June 2010.

[3] Administering Avaya Aura™ Session Manager, Issue 3, Release 6.0, August 2010, Doc ID
03-603324

[4] ExtremeXOS Command Reference Guide, Software Version 12.0

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©2011 Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Avaya and the Avaya Logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. All trademarks identified by ® and
™ are registered trademarks or trademarks, respectively, of Avaya Inc. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. The information provided in these Application
Notes is subject to change without notice. The configurations, technical data, and
recommendations provided in these Application Notes are believed to be accurate and
dependable, but are presented without express or implied warranty. Users are responsible for
their application of any products specified in these Application Notes.

Please e-mail any questions or comments pertaining to these Application Notes along with the
full title name and filename, located in the lower right corner, directly to the Avaya Solution &
Interoperability Test Lab at interoplabnotes@list.avaya.com

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