PoE Standards Introduction PoE standards come in three types: IEEE 802.3af, IEEE 802.3at, and IEEE 802.3bt. These standards define the minimum power that Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) can deliver and the maximum power that Powered Devices (PD) will expect to receive.

Power and data can be delivered simultaneously over Ethernet connections, thanks to a ground-breaking technology called Power over Ethernet (PoE). This approach greatly lowers expenses while streamlining network equipment installation and cabling. At the moment, IEEE 802.3af (PoE), IEEE 802.3at (PoE+), and IEEE 802.3bt (PoE++) are the three primary power supply specifications for PoE. Each standard represents a different set of application scenarios and power supply capabilities.

What is SFP? The Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) is a compact, hot-swappable transceiver used in data and telecommunications networks. Its primary purpose is to provide a flexible way to connect various network devices, such as switches, routers, and media converters, to fiber optic or copper cabling. Designed to fit into a special SFP port on networking devices, it facilitates seamless data transmission over short and long distances, depending on the module type.

Businesses require a highly available campus network. Network switch power redundancy is a critical component of overall campus redundancy. Cisco® StackPower is an innovative feature that aggregates all the available power in a stack of switches and manages it as one common power pool for the entire stack. This helps customers achieve more granular control over power use, resulting in savings that reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Cisco Catalyst® switches.