Welch Allyn Connex Vitalslink By Cerner, And Connex Csk Best Practices Overview - Installation Guide - Manual (Page 9)

Best practices Best practices 5
General network settings and configurations
The following best practices should be followed to maintain a robust system suited for
medical patient monitoring.
Separate VLAN Keep Welch Allyn patient monitors on their own
VLAN and SSID Wireless and
wired IT changes to the wireless controller that inadvertently
affect patient monitoring are more likely. Patient data
subject to issues on wired network such as broadcast
storms. Shorter battery life for patient monitors.
Wireless Multimedia (WMM) Enabled Wireless Monitors will disconnect during movement.
Best practice Affected types Without best practice
Best practice Affected types Without best practice
VoIP traffic If the controller feature set allows, limit VoIP traffic on
802.11a to no more than three open connections per AP. Also, allocate
a minimum of 7% AP bandwidth to Welch Allyn monitor traffic. Wireless Welch Allyn wireless traffic is tagged as VoIP QoS
so it has priority in busy environments. For this to
be effective, the amount of competing VoIP traffic
must be constrained. Failure to allocate AP
resources to Welch Allyn monitor traffic could
increase patient data loss.
Controller redundancy Wireless controller hardware should include
controller redundancy, either one to one or one to many (1:1 or N:1) Wireless Failure of a non-redundant controller would cause
the entire system to fail.
Critical IT support The customer shall provide 24/7, mission-critical
support for their network Wireless and
wired Possible extended downtime if network support
cannot be reached.
DHCP Information
•
Primary DHCP Server = Primary server IP address
• Secondary DHCP Server = Secondary server IP address
Wireless Loss of connection and data.
Jitter Packet-to-Packet jitter shall be
 400ms
Wireless and
wired Dropped packets, data loss and dropped
connections.
Labeling Welch Allyn VLAN ports should be clearly marked on the
physical switches Wireless and
wired Harder to debug system issues. Mixing of IT and
patient data could result in loss of data due to
broadcast storms.
Network latency Round-trip peak network latency between a server
and its patient monitor
800ms
Wireless and
wired Dropped packets and data loss.
Packet transport Packets should be passed through switches and
routers in cut-through mode, or hardware based switching, not store-
and-forward-only mode (applicable to older switches/hubs) Wired Dropped packets and data loss.
Power redundancy All network equipment used for patient
monitoring should have a continuous power supply and emergency
power Wireless and
wired Data loss and downtime due to power outages.
Wired connections Connections between switches, wireless
controllers, servers and similar equipment should use gigabit Ethernet.
In cases where connections to lower speed ports are unavoidable, do
not rely on auto-negotiation. Explicitly configure speed and duplex
settings to 100Mbps and Full Duplex. Wired Unreliable network connection, and severely
affected appliances connected through the
interface. Lower speed connection interleaved
between high speed connections could introduce
bottleneck.
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) STP should be turned off for the
Welch-Allyn specific wireless VLAN/SSID. Enable “port fast” for non-
trunked wired interfaces connected to continuous monitors, wireless
controllers, or Welch Allyn Servers. Wireless and
wired Dropped connections.