Are there plans for new ESW 500 switch models with increased PoE capacity?

[John Platts]

I do know that the current ESW 500 switch models do not have enough capacity to power all of the switchports at 15.4W, even though the ESW-540-8P model has almost enough capacity to power all of the switchports at 15.4W.

Reasons why new ESW 500 switches with increased PoE capacity are needed:

• The existing ESW 500 PoE switches do not always have enough capacity when these devices are deployed with the UC500:
  • 7945, 7965, and 797x phones
  • 8900 and 9900 series phones (not yet supported with the SBCS solution)
  • PVC2300 Surveillance cameras
  • AP541N access points
• The UC560 does not ship with any PoE ports and requires at least one ESW switch be deployed
• The 48-port gigabit version of the ESW switch is currently available only in a non-PoE version, and there is a need for a 48-port gigabit version for users deploying the UC560 solution.

The PoE capacities of the existing ESW 500 switches are:

• ESW-520-8P: 60W
• ESW-540-8P: 120W
• ESW-520-24P: 180W
• ESW-540-48P: 380W
• ESW-540-24P: 280W

The PoE capacities of ESW 500 switches supporting the full 15.4W PoE power on all PoE ports are:

• 8-port: 123.2W
• 24-port: 369.6W
• 48-port: 739.2W

Are there plans to release new ESW 500 switch models with increased PoE capacity, enough to deliver the full 15.4W to all of the PoE ports?

[streaves · Accepted solution]

Hi John -- Thanks for participating in the Small Business Support Community. I talked to our switching product manager and want to share his response.

We have made a conscious decision to deliver PoE as in ESW and other Small Business switches for several reasons:

• Most PoE endpoints draw much lower power than the 15.4 W maximum. Most IP phones are below the 7W range.
• A typical deployment would connect more than PoE devices to a switch.
• For these reasons, the ESW is not cost-burdened with PoE functionality which would not be used for the most part.
• All ports are still PoE capable so you can connect up to 24 PoE devices to a 24-port switch at any point in time, provided that the combined is under the budget.
• Therefore, since these products are targeted at the Small Business and pricing is a major consideration, we opted for this approach.

We do not have a product with full power on all ports in the Cisco Small Business portfolio, except in the 8-port arena. Within Cisco, the Cisco Catalyst products support this today.

Thanks again for the question,

Stephanie Reaves

Cisco Small Business