Many devices such as IP phones, wireless access points, IP cameras or even small switches may be powered via the data Ethernet cable (by one of the PoE standards). This approach saves a lot of issues with separate electric power infrastructure and eases device manageability (e.g. hard reset of the distant malfunctioning phone has never been easier before). Nevertheless, this approach in large scale requires appropriate operational tools.

What is the number of PoE powered devices? What is the PoE class (and what is the respective power reserved and actually drawn) of each device? Is the power supply of the feeding device (Ethernet switch in most cases) adequate for the actual and future need of the endpoints? How much redundancy do I need if one of the power supplies fail?

Quick answers to those (and other PoE related) questions may be essential in the time of planning and in the time of power outage or hardware failure. IP Fabric can provide those answers with the usual filtering and sorting aids that its user interface offers.

Statistics per switch and per port are available. A network engineer can easily decide which devices or endpoints should be focused on (and for example turned off if needed) without leaving its desk and without extensive on-site troubleshooting.

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