Net2phone Cisco Meraki configuration

This guide provides detailed instructions for configuring your Meraki appliances to ensure all voice traffic for Net2phone services works properly. By following these steps, you'll optimize network settings, create necessary group policies, add VLANs, configure firewall rules, manage load balancing, set flow preferences, and enable traffic shaping rules. This will help ensure reliable and high-quality voice communication over your network.

Accessing the Meraki appliance

To access the Meraki Cloud Dashboard:

1. Open a browser from a connected device.
2. Visit https://account.meraki.com/login.
3. You should be prompted to enter the admin user credentials.

Creating a Group Policy

To create a Group Policy:

1. Navigate to Network-wide in the navigation menu to the left.
2. Under the Configure heading, Select Group Policies.

3. Select Group Policies.
4. Set policy Name to net2phone.
5. Ensure Schedule is disabled.
6. Configure Bandwidth to be Ignored.
7. Firewall and traffic shaping should be set to custom.
8. A single Traffic shaping rule should be implemented including the following:
Definition should include SIP(Voice), Real-time Transport Protocol, Real-time Transport Protocol(Audio), Real-time Transport Protocol (Video).
Bandwidth limit should be ignored.
Priority should be set to High.
DSCP tagging should be set to 46(EF - Expedited Forwarding, Voice).

9. Click the Save changes button at the bottom when complete.

Adding a VLAN

To create a VLAN:

802.1q VLAN config and tags should be verified to allow for proper VLAN assignment. This can include DHCP server, switch access ports, and/or SIP endpoints such as physical deskphones, ATAs, etc.

1. Select Security & SD WAN in the navigation menu for the device.
2. Under the Configure heading, click Addressing & VLANs.

3. Scroll down to the Routing sub section and click the Add VLAN button .
4. VLAN Name should be set to net2phone.
5. VLAN ID to be configured as desired.
NOTE - Cisco recommends to limit the number of VLANS to 100 or less on the Meraki Platform.
6. Apply the net2phone group policy (created above) to the new VLAN.

7. Click the Next button when ready.
8. Define the VLAN Interface IP Address and Subnet.

9. Click the Preview button when completed .
10. Review and click the Update button.

Adding Layer 3 Outbound Firewall Rules

To create a Layer 3 Outbound Firewall Rule:

1. Select Security & SD WAN in the navigation menu for the device. 2. Click Firewall.
3. Under the Outbound Rule heading, click the Add new button .
4. Add rules to Allow ANY traffic from the source net2phone VLAN created above to the destination net2phone and device manufacturer subnets outlined in the linked document: Net2phone Firewall Configuration

Load Balancing

Disable Load Balancing :

It is HIGHLY recommended NOT to use Load Balancing with VoIP on separate WAN links, as load balancing across different WAN links can cause traffic to appear to come from different WAN IP addresses which will cause problems with RTP voice media.

1. Select Security & SD WAN in the navigation menu for the device. 2. Click SD WAN & Traffic Shaping.
3. Under the Global preferences heading, select the Disabled radio button for Load balancing:

Flow Preference

Configuring Flow Preference:

By default (without load balancing), internet-bound traffic will flow out of the MX's primary uplink. Flow preferences can be configured to define which uplink a given flow should use. Flow preferences will also supersede load balancing decisions.

1. Select Security & SD WAN in the navigation menu for the device. 2. Click SD WAN & Traffic Shaping.
3. Under the Flow preferences heading, add a preference for:
Protocol: Any
Source: The net2phone VLAN subnet you created above. Src Port: Any
Destination: Any
Preferred uplink: Your best performing WAN link with the lowest amount of jitter and latency.

Traffic Shaping Rules

Enable default Traffic Shaping Rules:

The default rules ensure best performance for local voice traffic, software updates for end client devices, and collaboration applications. It is recommended to enable these default traffic shaping rules on the WAN appliance as it allows for simple and fast configuration for the best performance of network traffic.

1. Select Security & SD WAN in the navigation menu for the device. 2. Click SD WAN & Traffic Shaping.
2. Under the Traffic shaping rules heading, select Enable default traffic shaping rules in the dropdown.

For additional information or troubleshooting assistance please refer to documentation.meraki.com.

For a comprehensive guide on configuring a Dell SonicWALL please see the following article: Net2phone SonicWALL configuration