32 IP Cameras - Would you set-up a VLAN for them?????

[burgemaster]

As per title, we have all HP Procurve network, and 32 x Panasonic IP cameras.

 

I have been reading some posts saying that IP cameras should be always put on a VLAN to stop traffic (multicast?) flooding the whole network and hence slowing down the rest of the network.

 

Could anyone please advise?

 

1) Would segregating the cameras to their own network reduce traffic on the main network?

2) Would this be a noticeable improvement??

 

Thanks in advance

[MatthewL]

If it is me I would just to keep things tidy as a personal reason. Cannot answer re the multicast as I don't have any running on my network anymore.

[CyberNerd]

We put our cctv on a vlan, but I did it more for security reasons. The core switch doesn't route between the networks and it is done at the firewall level to make sure only dedcated clients have access. As to whether it really speeds things up, probably, but its good practice keeping things in logical networks - it helps with fault finding and protects the cameras from errors on other networks.

[Chris_Cook]

We have our cctv cameras in a separate vlan, mostly for security as CyberNerd says. Our cctv vlan is terminated on a second vnic on the cctv virtual server.

 

Whether you reduce the traffic on your main network will depend on your network infrastructure and the number of nodes.

 

You will divide up your broadcast domain and reduce the amount of broadcast traffic each node has to deal with. If you route your cctv vlan over the same uplinks as your main network, then it won't make much difference to the amount of traffic flowing through those uplinks.

 

Multicasting will depend on whether your cameras or network uses it, and also on the configuration of your routers and switches. I don't think that many cameras use multicast.

Edited November 4, 2012 by Chris_Cook