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PoE Switch vs Non-PoE Switch: What Are They?

To understand the PoE switch, we’d better know Power over Ethernet first. PoE is a revolutionary technology that allows network cable to provide both data and power for the PoE-enabled devices. The PoE can provide higher power and reduce a lot of power cables during network. Usually, it is used for VoIP phones, network cameras, and some wireless access points.

PoE switch is a networking device with PoE passthrough which has multiple Ethernet ports to connect network segments. It not only transmits network data but also supplies power via a length of Ethernet network cable, like Cat5 or Cat6. The types of hubs can be classified into 8/12/24/48 port Gigabit PoE switch, or unmanaged and managed PoE network switch. Among the various port designs, the 8 port PoE switch is considered as a decent option for home network and 24 port PoE switch is popular for the business network.

Non-PoE switch, just as the name, is the normal switch, which can only send data to network devices. There is no PoE in the normal switch to supply electrical power for end users over Ethernet.

PoE Switch vs Non-PoE Switch: What’s the Difference?

The biggest difference between PoE switch and non-PoE switch is the PoE accessibility. As mentioned above, the PoE switch is PoE enabled while the non-PoE switch is not PoE enabled.

For PoE switch, you can mix PoE and non-PoE devices on the same one. Because if there is no need to use power, you can turn off the PoE of the PoE switch and use it as a regular witch. However, non-PoE switch can’t support the mixing of PoE and non-PoE devices.

For non-PoE switch, it can be PoE ready only by installing a PoE injector to power a few devices. The injector is able to add electrical power and then transmits both data and power to power devices simultaneously. Users require one extra cable to connect power outlets. In this solution, if a PoE injector goes out, it only affects one device. But if the PoE goes out in a PoE switch, all PoE devices will be down.

Figure 1: PoE switch vs non-PoE switch

PoE Switch vs Non-PoE Switch: Which One to Choose?

Many users may encounter this problem. Should we choose PoE switch or non-PoE switch? Though the non-PoE network switch can also acquire PoE by installing injector. But PoE switch has some advantages over the non-PoE switch.

Flexibility – The PoE switch is powered through existing PoE network infrastructure and eliminates the demand for additional electrical wiring. This gives you flexibility to employ the switch wherever you need.

Good performance – PoE switch is designed with advanced features like high-performance hardware and software, auto-sensing PoE compatibility, strong network security and environmental adaptability. It provides better performance for users.

Cost-efficient – There is no need for users to purchase and deploy additional electrical wires and outlets with PoE switch. Therefore, it makes great savings on installation and maintenance costs.

Conclusion

After the comparison of PoE switch vs non-PoE switch, do you know which one to choose? Actually, it depends on your real needs. FS is a good place to go for the reliable and cheap PoE or non-PoE network switch. Welcome to contact us if you have any needs about it.

As technology booming and networking devices proliferating, network expansion has become common in all data centers. Thus choosing an Ethernet switch with abundant ports is of great concern. However, one can also connect small switches like 8 port switches together by daisy chaining them. For SMBs and home usage, the choice between deploying a 24 port switch vs daisy-chaining 8 port switch has confused many people. We’re here to make an analysis for your selection guide.

24 Port Switch Solution Analysis

Deploying a single 24 port switch owns all the edges over several small 8 port switches. Above all, 24 port switch is designed with advanced features for high-performance. Say S1400-24T4F 24 port PoE switch, which has a 400W power budget and 52Gbps switching capacity rather than 130W and 20Gbps of S1130-8T2F 8 port PoE switch. Besides, more unoccupied ports provides you redundancy for network expansion. An 8 port switch can easily get saturated than you’ve expected. Also, running one 24 port switch saves space, power and is easier for management than daisy-chaining several 8 port switches. But meanwhile a single 24 port switch loses redundancy for network outage and separate placing flexibility.

S1400-24T4F 24 port switch

Figure 1: S1400-24T4F 24 port rack mount PoE switch complies with IEEE 802.3af/at, fit for VoIP phones, wireless APs and IP surveillance cameras for intelligent switching and networks growth.

Daisy-chaining 8 Port Switch Solution Analysis

In general, we don’t recommend one to daisy chain 8 port switches. The main reason is that it brings low performance and unnecessary troubles. Chaining switches makes your network too big a diameter, which is difficult to achieve effective Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). As a result, it forms a loop and your network will grind to a halt. Also, the 1Gbps uplinks for connecting those 8 port switches will become a bottleneck, which causes random dropped connections and incidental throughput issues. To alleviate the loop, mind never daisy chain more than 3 switches together. Besides, keeping hooking up 8 port switches, your network layout will look like a spider web of switches and cables in all different directions. In this regard 8 Port PoE switch may be a good way to go for saving one extra power wire for each device.

However, daisy-chaining 8 port switch can make things easier in some situations. For example, you have a 24 port gigabit switch in the garage and you plan to run each room with a cable to a port. But how about rooms needing more than one port? In this case you can daisy chain an 8 port switch to that port in each room, then all your devices can be connected. This is also the easiest solution when PCs in different areas requiring for separate IP locations.

S1130-8T2F 8 port PoE switch application

Figure 2: Applications of S1130-8T2F 8 port PoE switch for IP cameras, VoIP phones, wireless APs.

24 Port Switch vs Daisy-chaining 8 Port Switch Deployment Guide

To highlight, using a single 24 port switch with redundant ports is a more advanced solution in modern market. It leaves management troubles and low-performance issues like loop and connection drops of daisy-chaining 8 port switches. However, daisy-chaining 8 port switches is a solution to situations when you need several ports in different rooms or separate IP addresses. But all in all, even if you choose daisy-chaining 8 port switches, you need at least a reliable gigabit switch as core switch in the data center. Then you can add 8 port switches as small branch circuits.

Whatever you are choosing, gigabit PoE switch can fit the bill in any situations cruel for power cabling. For the loop issue, one key is to use managed gigabit switch. It detects loops and quickly shuts them down. All managed PoE gigabit switches in FS.COM are fully managed, supporting both Web Interface and CLI command. For replacing clumsy daisy chaining, you can stack switch by using stackable managed switch, which can let your switch stack work smoothly as a single one. Say stackable 24 port gigabit switch managed with 4 10Gb SFP+ uplinks: S3800-24T4S 1000Base-T copper switch and S3800-24F4S SFP switch. Both supports up to 4 24 port switches stacked together, providing up to 512Gbps total switching capacity for your network.

S3800-24T4S and S3800-24F4S stackable 24 port switch

Figure 3: S3800-24T4S and S3800-24F4S stackable managed switch stacking solution for network expansion.

Conclusion

24 port switch vs daisy-chaining 8 port switch: which to employ? For separate placement requirement, daisy-chaining 8 port switch can be a solution to go. A suggestion is to deploy a good 24 port gigabit switch in the data center. Then daisy chain 8 port switches as access switches. For reliable performance concern, one should go for 24 port switch. And for future-proof network growth, to stack switch with stackable 24 port switch can make sense. It also gets around performance issues in replace of daisy-chaining 8 port switches.