After a gap of 9 years, the IEEE are close to finalising and ratifying the latest POE standard, IEEE802.3bt for higher power for delivering up to 71W over 4-pairs. SILVERTEL will offer 2 new modules for the new standard: Ag5800 and Ag6800.
Silvertel Ag5800
The history of IEEE POE standards started way back in 2003 with 802.3af for 12.95W devices, moving on slowly to 25.5W devices being catered for with 802.3at (often called POE+) back in 2009. However, there has always been demand for more power for larger and more power hungry devices. SILVERTEL and other major POE industry players have been catering for the slowly growing market demand for higher power POE systems since 2010. So much market demand now in fact that SILVERTEL have an extensive range of higher power POE modules (with Ag5500, Ag5510, Ag5600, Ag6110 and Ag6600) already widely used globally in a wide range of products and applications, such as high power Pan/Tilt/ Zoom IP cameras, high end video conferencing systems and access control locking systems.
Silvertel Ag6800
As many of SILVERTELs’ customers are aware, the IEEE has been in the process of drafting a new Power over Ethernet standard, called 802.3bt. This is a new higher power standard for delivering up to 71W at the PD over the full 4 pairs of wires in a CAT5E cable to improve efficiency and minimise losses at the higher power levels. This standard is now at Draft 3.2, to which release level SILVERTEL are preparing a new set of modules, the Ag6800 and Ag5800. Ag6800 will be a fully (draft) standards compliant, 90W nominal output PSE module and will be released first, followed shortly after by the draft compliant Ag5800 PD module, delivering up to 71W of usable power to the end device. Both modules will be cost and footprint size optimised, as you would expect from a world leader in POE module technology and design, to provide state of the art solutions at market leading prices for our customers for the next generation of POE applications. The Ag5800 PD module has been designed into a footprint of just 35×70mm, while the Ag6800 is just 35×51mm in area.
The new standard, as you would expect, is fully backward compatible with the existing POE standards. In addition to much higher power levels, the new 802.3bt also introduces some new key important features for modern and trending technologies such as LED lighting. While the use of POE for powering such systems has been slowly growing, one major drawback for large scale implementation of POE as a power source for lighting is the relatively high standby power requirements of POE.
In order to maintain the PSE power connection, legacy POE systems require a 10mA PD current draw, over the link, for a minimum duty cycle of 20%. Assuming 50V on the cable, this equates to a standby power loss of 100mW per PD. With any large scale projects with high numbers of connected devices, this can quickly add up to a lot of wasted power, strongly frowned upon in our Green and Eco friendly times. The new 802.3bt standard makes great progress with regards to this needless standby power loss by allowing a 2.2% duty cycle. The standby power loss per port is therefore reduced to less than 20mW, ten times smaller than previously. Of course, other features (already familiar to high power POE users) introduced are power delivered over all four pairs. This helps to reduce power losses in the cables by effectively halving the current through each pair of wires. The changes are partly enabled by introducing two new PSE types, Type 3 for power up to 51W and Type 4 for Power up to 71W. The POE classification range is also extended up to Class 8 for 90W output on the PSE and 71W delivered at the PD. As ever, the modules have been designed and will be produced in the UK and backed up by SILVERTELs first class application support for any customers choosing them for their next generation of POE products. The IEEE may have taken its’ time with the new higher power standard, but we think it will have been worth the wait! For more details, please get in touch with your CODICO contact.
Ivan Mitic, Regional Sales Manager
ivan.mitic@codico.com
+43 1 86 305-194
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