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Network Archticture suggestions for large 3-Building apartment complex
We have 3 apartment buildings in a line, each with around 50 apartments over 4 or 5 floors each and we are looking to provide an internet connection to all apartments plus site CCTV: ‘Building A <—> Building B <—>Building C.
A leased line will probably come into building A. I already have CAT6A cables from A to B and B to C. Thus far I am thinking of connecting the 3 buildings with 3 switches, SWA, SWB and SWC respectively:
Internet Router <—> SWA <——> SWB <——> SWC
And then have connections from each switch SWx to various other switches around its respective building
eg: SWA
|——>SWA1 |——>SWA2 |——>SWAn
n will probably be just 2 for Buildings A and C and maybe 5 for the centre building B.
The switches SWn will generally be at the ground floor level and at a “service riser cupboard” that allows more connections to be made possible with a cable to each apartment directly (long cable up the floors to each of about 10-20 apartments) or to a further switch on each floor.
eg
SWA1
|——>Router in Apt A1 |——>Router in Apt A2 |——>Router in Apt Ax etc
x will vary from 3 to 20 depending on number of apartments connected to that switch.
There could be a good argument for inserting an extra switch on each floor although it would be possible to take cables from an apartment on the top floor down to a switch on the ground floor.
There will also be IP CCTV cameras dotted around and fed back to a recorder connected to SWB.
Now is this an appropriate scheme? I’m not sure how well it lends itself to sub netting appropriately? Any thoughts on subnetting arrangements? Should there be a router per Building? Pros and cons?
Or are Layer 3 switches enough for SWA, SWB and SWC? I’m thinking each apartment should be on its own VLAN. We want good isolation for traffic to the different apartments but also routing for CTV traffic on any switch in the network back to the network video recorder on SWB
That's great! Well, that is a pretty good idea, so that the main router will not overload and you can even filter the LAN devices from it. If ever your concern has been addressed or resolved, I encourage you to mark the appropriate reply as the “Accepted Solution” so others can be confident in benefiting from the solution.
The NETGEAR Community looks forward to hearing from you and being a helpful resource in the future!
Re: Network Archticture suggestions for large 3-Building apartment complex
Hi Mintman,
Welcome to our community! 🙂
It looks pretty great. I suggest, remove the routers on each apartment then focus on VLAN instead and replace it with a small switch that will support the devices either POE or NON-POE devices. It is much cheaper rather than putting a router.
Using L3 switch will still depend on the needs of your network. I think, L2 switch can do the job as long as the connection between the buildings is via SFP. If you do have any questions, please let us know.
Re: Network Archticture suggestions for large 3-Building apartment complex
Hi John,
Thank you so much for your reply - it is very much appreciated.
Why do you say that L2 may be sufficient "provided SFP is used"?
I actually have CAT6A already in ( 😞 ) so that they are capable of 10Gbps.
Why does SFP make a difference?
I like the idea of just taking a cable up to each apartment and just providing them with an ethernet socket that they can just plug their own switches into. That was actually my original idea until some other IT guy suggested we should put a router in each apartment!
Any thoughts on sub-netting? Is it even necessary or do you think VLANs will be sufficient?
If you already have a Cat6A cable, then, you may check our 10G Smart Managed Pro Switch Series. The SFP will not use the main ethernet ports on a switch and you can also use it for stacking.
May I know your plans why do they need to have a router on each apartment? Maybe he do have a purpose/other plans. If his purpose is just to provide another subnet, then the VLAN is sufficient on your setup and can do its job already as long as it is supported by a VLAN capable router. The VLAN router can also handle the VLAN routing.
Re: Network Archticture suggestions for large 3-Building apartment complex
That's splendid!
I had in mind the 10G Smart Managed Pro series, but kept wondering if fully managed (L2/L3) was going to be desirable for reasons that I hadn't thought of!
I can't say we do have any firm plans yet. I'm just getting a feel for the various options. The only real reason for suggesting a router in each apartment was to control what devices tenants could attach directly to the site internet, possibly to stop people doing stupid things (eg attaching a switch port from their own router to the site system and thus trying to act as a DHCP server for the site - although a decent switch can ignore such requests from a rogue DHCP server, so I never really saw the relevance of it).
I think the 10G Smart Managed Pro Series and just using VLANs seems a relatively simple solution.
That's great! Well, that is a pretty good idea, so that the main router will not overload and you can even filter the LAN devices from it. If ever your concern has been addressed or resolved, I encourage you to mark the appropriate reply as the “Accepted Solution” so others can be confident in benefiting from the solution.
The NETGEAR Community looks forward to hearing from you and being a helpful resource in the future!
