Main Advantages of Industrial PoE Switch and How to Choose

PoE stands for Power Over Ethernet. PoE is also known as Power over LAN (PoL, Power over LAN) or Active Ethernet, and is sometimes referred to as Power over Ethernet or Remote Power. A complete PoE system includes two parts: power supply equipment (PSE, Power Sourcing Equipment) and power receiving equipment (PD, Power Device). A poe switch is a PSE device, and a wireless AP or surveillance camera is a PD device.

Industrial POE switches refer to devices that can transmit data for some IP terminal-based devices (such as wireless APs, network cameras, etc.) without changing any existing Ethernet cabling infrastructure, and can also achieve power supply functions.  It is a ethernet switch that supports Power over Ethernet. Its role is mainly data transmission and power supply.

Because industrial PoE switches can withstand harsh working environments and have rich product series and flexible port configurations, so they can meet the needs of various industrial control fields. With the rapid development of electric power, metallurgy, petrochemical, environmental protection, transportation, construction and other industries, the demand for industrial PoE switches in the information construction of various industries is also increasing. Compared with ordinary commercial ethernet switches, the advantages of industrial PoE switches are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1. Using industrial PoE grade components

Industrial PoE switches have high requirements on the selection of components and must withstand the detection of harsh environments, so it can well adapt to industrial-grade environments and support industrial applications in various harsh environments.

2. Fast ring network, fast redundancy

Industrial PoE switches generally have fast ring network and fast redundancy functions, and the system redundancy time can be less than 50ms. Although commercial products can also form a redundant network, the self-healing time is more than 10 to 30s, which cannot meet the use in industrial environments. For example, the industrial PoE switch developed and produced by HouShi Network Technology supports the ERPS industrial fast ring network (G.8032) protocol, and the self-healing time is less than 20ms.

3. Strong anti-interference performance

Industrial PoE switches have strong anti-interference performance, can work in harsh electromagnetic environments, and have high protection levels in terms of lightning protection, waterproof, anti-corrosion, anti-shock, anti-static, etc., while commercial-grade ethernet switches do not have these characteristics. For example, the 16-port PoE full-gigabit industrial PoE switch of Houshi Network has 6KV lightning protection, industrial level 4 protection and anti-interference capabilities.

4. Adapt to wide temperature environment

Industrial PoE switches generally use corrugated metal casings, which have better heat dissipation and stronger protection. They can work normally in the temperature range of -40℃~80℃, and can adapt to complex temperature and humidity well. However, commercial ethernet switch can only work in the range of -20°C to 50°C, which cannot meet the working requirements in harsh environments.

5. Redundant power supply design

Power supply is a very important part of industrial PoE switches. Power failures generally account for more than 35% of the equipment failure rate. In order to avoid troubles caused by power failures, industrial PoE switches adopt dual power redundancy design to ensure stable and reliable operation of the system.Commercial ethernet switches generally use AC single power supply, which is not suitable for applications in industrial environments.

6. Long service life

Industrial PoE switches use industrial-grade solutions from housing materials to supporting components, so the Industrial PoE switch has higher reliability and longer service life. Generally, the service life is > 10 years, while the service life of ordinary commercial ethernet switches is 3 years.

Basic ideas for choosing an industrial PoE switch

In the process of selecting an industrial PoE switch, in addition to considering reliability, real-time performance and compatibility, users should also select an appropriate twisted pair or optical fiber interface according to some basic requirements such as transmission distance and transmission bandwidth. When connecting some devices such as video terminals and wireless base stations, PoE switches can be selected for the convenience of wiring.