Pre-Sales question for POE Switch

Welcome to the community!

Netgear has made the choice to follow the standard for higher security and better ability to connect and communicate with PoE devices, as the large majority of PoE devices follow these standards. For many good reasons, Netgear does only supply IEEE industry standard compliant PoE (802.3af, type 1), PoE+ (802.3at, type 2), and PoE++ (802.3bt, type 3 & 4) PoE switches. These standards imply a handshake between the powered device (PD) and the switch port/power source (PSE) to negotiate the standard, voltage range, power required - before any power is assigned and voltage is applied to the link.

When reading about 24V or 48V "PoE", there should be big warning marks, because these are proprietary, so called passive PoE where power is always in place, regardless what is plugged, regardless what voltage is required. It can be like plugging a 110V AC appliance to a 240V AC outlet. Standards compliant PoE does _never_ talk of xx V or yy V - it does not have to, because it's secured and fully controlled.

Afraid, you have to stick with the vendor proprietary "PoE" sources like switches or power injectors for your cameras and APs. What makes the passive PoE cheap initially - it might seem like a good idea to opt for passive PoE over the industry-standard active PoE - but it does cost you a lot more in the long run. The only way to ensure complete compatibility with the majority of PoE devices on the market is to stick with the industry standard, active PoE.

Regards,

-Kurt

PS. I have to admit, Netgear has recently decided to add a product to the market which is not PoE standards compliant, too.