Power over Ethernet Crash Course

Power over Ethernet (PoE) is a technology for wired LANs that allows the electrical current to be carried by the data cables rather than by power cords. It is also a technology often overlooked in the Voice over IP arena. Traditional telephony draws its power through the phone line connection, but IP handsets require electrical power. With PoE, the mess of additional cabling can be avoided. Network architects and engineers can reduce the implementation costs and downtime associated with VoIP, provide easier maintenance and greater installation flexibility than with traditional wiring. This crash course will arm you with the knowledge to make PoE work for you.

FEATURE

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

IEEE 802.3at: Power over Ethernet plus

802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) has been widely adopted for powering VoIP phones, wireless access points and a number of other network-connected products. But it provides a limited amount of power. In this tip, David Jacobs investigates the latest developments in 802.3at PoE, designed to deliver more power to each device.

Helping PoE reach its potential
Power over Ethernet is helping bring to organizations and individuals to enjoy the benefits of a wired world. But with success comes greater responsibility. Now that the PoE standard is so widely adopted -- most networking equipment vendors support PoE in some form -- it's time for the standard to do more.

Power over Ethernet for network architects
David Jacobs discusses how Power over Ethernet (PoE) is defined by the 802.3af standard, then looks at how PoE can help network architects simplify power distribution and potentially save money.

Power over Ethernet for network engineers
This introduction to Power over Ethernet (PoE) is directed toward network engineers and discusses how the technology works, its power capabilities and some benefits it provides for the network administrator or manager.

Podcast: Power over Ethernet
In this podcast, we discusses the emergence of Power over Ethernet and its many benefits to enterprise networks. We also include some expert comments about the technology from The Siemon Company's Carrie Higbie and Sam Bottros of Cisco Systems. Is the technology ready yet for mainstream adoption? Is it ready yet for your network? Time to find out! Listen to our PoE Podcast today …

Our VoIP experts, Carrie Higbie and Patrick Ferriter, address powering IP phones with PoE and using PoE for redundancy in your VoIP network.

This crash course originally appeared on SearchNetworking.com.

This was first published in July 2006

Back to top