Still, the datasheet is a little ambiguous when it comes to how many ports can be simultaneously used for PoE.
If I'm not mistaken, the existing -P models support PoE on a subset of their ports. This has been so far the interpretation I've been making of the PoE specifications table in the datasheet. For example, for model SF200-24P the 200 Series datasheet reads:
Switch capacity: 24 ports
of which 12 support PoE (namely 1-6 and 13-18)
total available power for PoE: 100W
The admin manual has not been updated with the new -FP models though, and I'm not sure I understand what the differences are compared to the -P models apart from the total power budget available to PoE. In addition, the compare function of the cisco website exposes even fewer differences than one can extract from the manual or the datasheet (in the website comparison, both models are reported as supporting PoE on all ports, whereas the Admin manual clearly states that for the -P model, PoE is only supported on ports 1-6 and 13-18, which is half the ports, and which is what the datasheet says anyways).
But, the datasheet reads for SF200-24FP:
Switch capacity: 24 ports
all of which support PoE
total available power for PoE: 180W
The datasheet states for ALL 200-Series models, however, including the Full Power ones: IEEE 802.3af PoE delivered on half of the RJ-45 ports within the listed power budgets
Is this still accurate, or this text has not been updated since the introduction of the -FP models?
a) If it is accurate then the -FP model of the switch I used in the example above is different in the following ways:
1) It can deliver 180W to PoE devices instead of 100W
2) Any port can be used for PoE (not predetermined ports, such as 1-6, 13-18), but only up to 12 ports can simultaneously be powering PoE devices at any given time - which practically limits the number of PoE devices one can hook up to this switch to 12, like the previous model
b) If it is not accurate (the text I quoted above was not updated with the introduction of the -FP models), then the FP model is different in the following ways:
1) It can deliver 180W to PoE devices instead of 100W
2) Any port can be used for PoE, and all 24 of them can be used to power PoE devices at the same time, provided the power budget of 180W is not exceeded. In constrast with the -P PoE-enabled model, the -FP model can accomodate PoE devices on all ports simultaneously.
Which hypothesis of the two outlined above is correct, would be nice to know. PoE is not as affordable in dense deployments as it should be, and if the FP Series remedy this, it would make the 200-Series very attractive compared to other vendors' offerings at similar price points. Plus if the second interpretation is true, it's only sad there is no SF200-48FP yet.
