Equipment
PoE Switches
Managed switches that power devices over the data cable — the layer your access points and cameras sit on.
PoE turns two cables into one, and that single change frees the access point from the power outlet: it mounts where the coverage needs it, not where the electrician got to.
The constraint that tends to surface late is the switch power budget. The total draw across all ports has a ceiling, and it is that ceiling — not the port count — that decides how many power-hungry devices one switch can carry. Getting it right means counting the load up front.
What to weigh up
- Power standard: PoE, PoE+ or PoE++, depending on what the end devices draw.
- Total power budget across the switch, not just per-port capability.
- Access-port and uplink speeds, and the gap between them.
- Management depth: VLANs, link aggregation and monitoring — or unmanaged.