We have relaunched: What's new at ZDNet Asia?

ZDNet / News / Communications / Story

Cisco develops own power-over-Ethernet standard

By Richard Thurston, ZDNet UK on January 25th, 2008

Summary

The proprietary "enhanced power over Ethernet" standard can power wireless access points designed for the 802.11n draft over the LAN.

Events

The 2nd InfoSecurity Summit HK 2010
17 Mar 2010

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

IT Architect Regional Conference Singapore 2010
20 - 21 Apr 2010

Singapore Management University, Singapore

The Internet Show 2010
21-22 Apr 2010

Suntec Singapore

Cisco has developed its own proprietary standard to support the latest wireless access points, the company said on Wednesday.

The latest wireless access points, designed for the 802.11n draft, cannot be effectively powered using current switching equipment. 802.11n-based equipment may prove attractive for businesses because it offers up to 300Mbps throughput.

Access points have traditionally been connected via mains electricity, but many new installations are powered over the LAN, using a technique known as "power over Ethernet" (PoE).

PoE can only support devices which use less than 15.4W. This includes older access points but, to work effectively, 802.11n-based access points require 18.5W. Businesses wanting to power 802.11n access points have had to disable one of the two radios, which decreases throughput, or else use two switch ports or a separate power injector.

But Cisco now claims to have overcome these problems by supplying 18.5W over the LAN. The power is carried in the spare copper pair which does not carry data.

Although Cisco is a member of the IEEE's PoE standards group--responsible for a global effort to standardize PoE technology--this development has been undertaken separately.

Cisco's go-it-alone effort reflects its history with the technology. Cisco initially developed its own PoE standard, which it called Inline Power, before giving in to competition and adopting standardized PoE in its switches.

The IEEE is developing a separate high-speed standard called PoE Plus, which will support approximately 30W and is expected to be finalized in around 12 months' time. Cisco said it is involved in the IEEE's PoE Plus discussions.

The company said it developed its own high-power technology, which it has named "enhanced PoE", because it had released its own 802.11n-based access point. The Aironet 1250 was released in September 2007.

"The 802.11n standard is out already, so we had to make the switching capability available to customers," said Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior marketing director in Cisco's access routing and switching division.

Lasser-Raab claimed that there would be no interference caused to data by the higher power usage.

Enhanced PoE is included with current Catalyst 3750 and 3560 switches, and will be included on the Catalyst 6500 and 4500 switches from the middle of this year, Cisco said.

Businesses that currently own those switches can install the feature for free via a software upgrade.

Cisco has also built PoE capability into its 2960 switches, but the feature will incur a substantial price premium.

A 24-port 2960 with eight PoE ports is priced at US$1,795, while the same switch with 24 PoE ports sells for US$2,995. Enhanced PoE is not currently available on the 2960.

Cisco has also introduced a small switch which can be powered over the LAN by other switches. The 2960 PD switch is intended for deployment in areas where there is no mains power. It has eight ports, of which one must be given up to bring in the power from the supporting switch. It will be sold at US$795.

Lasser-Raab recommended that, as with any PoE deployment, all redundancy options should be considered to avoid a mains outage taking down the network.

Related stories

Cisco launches draft Wi-Fi kit

Cisco buys into UK femtocell firm

Cisco speeds up mobile workers' application access

Talkback

Add your opinion

In order to post a comment, you need to be registered. (Sign In or register below)

Post your comment
Transform your business interactions with real-time voice, video and telepresence solutions.
Tech Vendor: Cisco

ZDNet Asia Live

How the butterfly botnet was broken - Security - News http://bit.ly/9hjqea (via @ZDNetUK_News)

43 minutes ago by naotakahashi on topsy

#SOA #Blogs SOA/BPEL/Fusion Middle ware in Bangalore, Hyderabad, India ...: Mahindra Satyam Limited looking for SO... http://bit.ly/cZGwH2

1 hour 47 minutes ago by soablogs on topsy

the new look site is very nice @zdnetasia @zdnetaustralia

Big up to my peeps at www.ZDNet.com.au (and www.ZDNetasia.com and www.ZDNet.com.uk). Loving the redesign!

Twitter CEO unveils '@Anywhere' platform. http://tinyurl.com/yeat8uf

2 hours 38 minutes ago by thomasomoore on topsy

http://bit.ly/XHqoL Font Tools - Graphic Design Software - Windows - Free Software ... http://bit.ly/a9wykq

6 hours 3 minutes ago by rbwflyers on topsy

McAfee steps up cloud assurance - Zd Net Asia.com
http://www.zdnetasia.com/mcafee-...

Interesting take on social analystics. http://www.zdnetasia.com/blogs/w...

#PayPal PayPal to double APAC employees: By Liau Yun Qing, ZDNet Asia SINGAPORE--PayPal plans to... http://bit.ly/aa4PAr http://adf.ly/1MU1

12 hours 40 minutes ago by guyversads on topsy

Singapore govt (LTA) wants to provide live parking data to third parties. http://bit.ly/90Fc0m

RT @jay_ro: Loving the new site and unified design! www.zdnet.com.au (also www.zdnetasia.com and www.zdnet.co.uk) /via @pastawoua

ZDNet Australia, Asia and UK re-launch on a unified platform - looking good. www.zdnet.com.au www.zdnetasia.com www.zdnet.co.uk

Loving the new site and unified design! www.zdnet.com.au (also www.zdnetasia.com and www.zdnet.co.uk) /via @pastawoua

RT @pastawoua: The new ZDNet is live, www.zdnet.com.au (also www.zdnetasia.com and www.zdnet.co.uk) yay for unified design

RT @zdnetasia: We've cut over to a new design. Check out www.zdnetasia.com!

RT @pastawoua: new ZDNet is live zdnet.com.au (also zdnetasia.com & zdnet.co.uk) yay for unified design / Congratulations, it's a milestone

The new ZDNet is live, www.zdnet.com.au (also www.zdnetasia.com and www.zdnet.co.uk) yay for unified design

RT @zdnetasia: We've cut over to a new design. Check out www.zdnetasia.com!

RT @EileenZDNetAsia: We have finally crossed over...to the new ZDNet Asia look. Check it out! http://www.zdnetasia.com/

Check out Brand new look: ZDNet Asia http://www.zdnetasia.com/

Very good explanation of JMX

17 hours 48 minutes ago by Babith B on Managing applications with JMX

The reaction to a report issued Tuesday by Flurry Analytics managed to completely overlook some interesting news--the Android-based Motorola Droid outsold the original iPhone over the same period of time following their respective launches--to focus instead on the sales numbers for the Nexus One.

20 hours 52 minutes ago by lonemavericks on diggs

Another ZTE story....

22 hours 53 minutes ago by Moderate Your Greed on Philippines opens bid for final 3G license

We at www.fifosys.com have also seen a growth in IT outsourcing and anticipate it as a growing field.

1 day 27 minutes ago by sarah Jane on Companies' outsourcing spend to increase

I agree with you. The iSiVaL is super portable and TVs can't expand their image size. I recorded a video that might bring some ideas to...

1 day 57 minutes ago by Jesse B Andersen on Buying a projector? Try an LED TV instead

hermm... he deserved it.. he shud not talk abt sensitive things like tat, well, he shud think twice before saying all those things, event...

1 day 35 minutes ago by ... on Facebook user charged in Malaysia

Password manager tools are potential security threat. Criminals who hack into the computer can use the password manager to log onto any s...

1 day 35 minutes ago by ohanae on What defaults should random password generators use?

I've found the cross platform utility unetbootin to be rather handy for this kind of thing as well.

1 day 9 minutes ago by Jim on Use Live USB Creator to install Fedora 12 from a USB stick

Thanks for the article. I think the debug command has an "\" after "C:" it should say w32tm /debug /enable /file:C:\l...

1 day 10 minutes ago by Roger Biefer on Manage time accuracy with W32Tm

available in singapore now
http://www.portablemall.com.sg/goods-71-Microsoft+Zune+HD+32GB+-+Platinum.html

1 day 47 minutes ago by steve on Microsoft coy on apps for Zune HD

How about just using http://www.random.org/strings/? It is very configurable, satisfies all of the flexibility requirements you have ment...

1 day 52 minutes ago by Varun V Nair on What defaults should random password generators use?

Wi-Fi as the "Rodney Dangerfield of wireless", is a catchy metaphor, but it's already been used. In fact, it was the title of a...

2 days 52 minutes ago by Martin Suter on Selina Lo: Wired up for Wi-Fi in Asia

Dear Sir/Madam, I am Narasimha Rao.L. From bangalore India , i searching job in abroad , in electronics field, i have 6+ years exp....

3 days 53 minutes ago by Anonymous on Hot tech jobs in Singapore

Good article, computational aspect of acquired knowledge from the social platform is really questionable, given that there are a lot of p...

3 days 59 minutes ago by JN on What will social analytics say about your company?

The worlds most popular browser Firefox which has remained a stable trustworthy and secure product for many years now was today broken by...

4 days 10 minutes ago by Mitchell Krog on Mozilla aggressively asks older Firefox users to update

Nice article.. :) IOPS is a metric that has two more brothers. Throughput. and Latency. In effect, you must be aware of your IOPS,...

4 days 42 minutes ago by Karl Arao on Calculate IOPS in a storage array

Keep up with ZDNet Asia

Linkedin Join our network

RSS Feeds Subscribe now

Newsletters Subscribe today

Twitter Follow us

Inside ZDNet Asia

Special Report: Tech Focus in 2010

Latest Videos on Tech Industry

Insight: Interviews with Newsmakers

Search for over 15,000 Tech Jobs in Asia

Find your Tech answers in TechGuides

IT Library: Over 60,000 IT papers at your fingertips

Download IT Priorities 2010 Report