How to i measure the power consumption of a PoE switch

electrical-powerpower-over-ethernet

I have to measure the power consumption behavior of switches which are powered with PoE and which also provide energy to other devices. How can this be done?

regards

Best Answer

If I am reading your question right, you have an edge switch that is both POE-PD (powered device) and is also a POE-PSE (power sourcing equipment). I assume this switch is hooked up to a larger distribution switch which is capable of generating enough power per port to supply the combination of the edge switch and some combination of endpoints like IP phones or cameras.

If your distribution switch is a Cisco, then show power inline {port} will show POE power used by that port. So first plug in the switch by itself and measure power draw at the distribution switch port. Then plug in each device and measure the incremental power draw.

Also if you are feeling motivated, you could plug your endpoints into the distribution switch directly and measure their power draw individually. This would give you some insight into any additional power loss due to the cascaded POE setup.

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