APX MCD5000/APX7500 Deskset P25 network questions (VLANs?)

[p25shopquestions]

We are attempting to (finally, after years of work) connect our P25 network and are running into some issues. Previous project manager recently retired, and almost everyone who first started the work has since moved on from our location.

Current setup: 5 x APX7500s (four of them waiting for connection, will be replacing MTR2000s currently in use), 4 x trunked, 1 x conventional; 2 x RGUs; 1 x internal switch, 1 x external switch, fibre and copper LAN to distribute to various locations

The conventional one is used for ground control on an airfield and must be kept conventional. We tried to connect that one today through internal switch to RGU to external switch to deskset and couldn't make the connection, status signal didn't make it to the deskset and it thought the radio was offline. We changed the setup so that radio would connect to the internal LAN port on the second RGU through to the external switch and then the deskset was able to register its existence, and has been in continuous control since. Is this because it is a conventional radio?

Also, our network guys have set us up with three different /26 VLANs and have assigned our RGUs and 7/10 of our desksets on one and the remaining three on the second. I am not sure at what level this decision was made but it doesn't seem to be working, attempted an install at Firehall Dispatch for a deskset on the second VLAN and we were unable to connect to any of the radios (Firehall needs to access all of them). Pretty sure we would need a router to access the second VLAN, but thought maybe the RGUs could do this. Do they all have to be on the same network?

 

[Firebuff880]

While there are some great subject matter experts here.

This level of support requires a competent technician and a project manager, not an inquiry on a hobbyist forum.

three different /26 VLANs

Depending on your IT capabilities, you need a Router, a Layer 3 Switch that can handle tagged and Untagged packets, or an RGU that can be multi-homed.

 

[p25shopquestions]

Yeah, figures. Thanks anyway! We do what we can with what we have

 

[Echo4Thirty]

yeah, when it comes to stuff like this, you are really getting into needing an ST to configure it all. These types of products were really designed to be installed and configured by the folks the manufacturer trains. Even if you found the software to configure all of it, it is written in such a way that is very engineer specific and requires knowledge of how Motorola does its networking and communications across various networks and VLANs.

As someone who has sat in on some of those classes in Shaumburg and was confused as to why Moto did networking the way they did, the instructors answer has always stuck with me:

"We are designing a radio network here with mutliple LANs and VLANs here, we are not building out a flat network with just a file and Exchange server and some PC clients"

Sure IP is IP, but its the difference between building out a small flat corporate network and a datacenter.

 

[p25shopquestions]

We were able to figure it out with some troubleshooting between us and the networking guys. Turns out the switch we're using in the radio shop is a layer 2, but there is a layer 3 in the MDF that they are now routing us through, and after some adjustment of IPs/default gateway settings we were able to connect!