Understanding PoE - will it work with my setup?

[xrapidx]

Long story short - I have a flat roof house which is a nightmare to work with - down-lights everywhere - and about 60cm of crawl space, to add to that, the house was renovated 4x - resulting in double brick walls going into the roof - meaning access is a nightmare.

When I first moved in - I spent hours crawling around the different sections of the ceiling,, adding a single CAT6 "backbone" - and 4 port switches in the different sections of the house - allowing me to add networking points to all the rooms. (these switches mostly feed other switches).

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So my question - can I easily replace the existing switches with PoE switches without running another Ethernet cable? I'd like to do this to remove the requirement for power points in the ceiling - and it will also aid my future camera installation.

 

[smc]

Maybe, depending. You can get devices like this: http://us.dlink.com/products/business-solutions/dgs-1100-05pd/

But it's not a free lunch; as the switch is powered by POE, the amount of power that it can deliver to other POE devices is very limited; you would need to do careful power calculations. Personally, I wouldn't do this - as a solution, it's expensive and inflexible. I'd bite the bullet, and keep powered switches in a few locations, below, not above, the ceiling, for safety reasons.

Also, your existing cable should be solid core; copper coated aluminum cables are not recommended for POE.

 

[supersunbird]

Long story short - I have a flat roof house which is a nightmare to work with - down-lights everywhere - and about 60cm of crawl space, to add to that, the house was renovated 4x - resulting in double brick walls going into the roof - meaning access is a nightmare.

When I first moved in - I spent hours crawling around the different sections of the ceiling,, adding a single CAT6 "backbone" - and 4 port switches in the different sections of the house - allowing me to add networking points to all the rooms. (these switches mostly feed other switches).

----

So my question - can I easily replace the existing switches with PoE switches without running another Ethernet cable? I'd like to do this to remove the requirement for power points in the ceiling - and it will also aid my future camera installation.

You just get PoE switches for the area that need to power things that use PoE,

 

[xrapidx]

Maybe, depending. You can get devices like this: http://us.dlink.com/products/business-solutions/dgs-1100-05pd/

But it's not a free lunch; as the switch is powered by POE, the amount of power that it can deliver to other POE devices is very limited; you would need to do careful power calculations. Personally, I wouldn't do this - as a solution, it's expensive and inflexible. I'd bite the bullet, and keep powered switches in a few locations, below, not above, the ceiling, for safety reasons.

Also, your existing cable should be solid core; copper coated aluminum cables are not recommended for POE.

That's the thing though - it's not possible to bring the switches below the ceilings, I'd then be running 4-8 ethernet cables back up into the ceilings - resulting in trunking everywhere.

Oddly enough - the one powerplug in the ceiling was installed and a CoC was issued by the same company (was for the now removed alarm)

You just get PoE switches for the area that need to power things that use PoE,

It was mainly the switches I wanted PoE for - to remove the power requirement in the ceiling.

 

[furpile]

That's the thing though - it's not possible to bring the switches below the ceilings, I'd then be running 4-8 ethernet cables back up into the ceilings - resulting in trunking everywhere.

Oddly enough - the one powerplug in the ceiling was installed and a CoC was issued by the same company (was for the now removed alarm)



It was mainly the switches I wanted PoE for - to remove the power requirement in the ceiling.

So you want a switch that runs off POE power? Didn't know it was possible but it seems it is.

https://kb.netgear.com/28370/PoE-pass-through-switches

Power over Ethernet (PoE) pass through switches can operate as both a Powered Device (PD) and Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE). This means that the switch can be powered by PoE while simultaneously providing power by PoE to other devices such as IP phones or wireless access points. This provides great flexibility because it means that the switch can be deployed without the constraints of an AC power outlet.

Note: Power budget calculations are very important when determining what can power and be powered by a PoE pass through switch. Please refer to the documentation for the individual switch model for further information.

Looks like you get this stuff on Takealot, but it might be expensive depending on the amount of power you need.