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Power over Ethernet - How it Works

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POWER OVER ETHERNET

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PoE Without a Sweat

Power over Ethernet - How it Works

The Evolution of PoE

802.3af (2003)

Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) transmitted a maximum of 15.4W which assured delivery of
12.95W (350mA) to the Powered Device (PD)
Total throughput was limited to 100Mbps and allowed power to be distributed over only two pairs,
and in two different modes (Mode A and Mode B) as seen in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1

IEEE 802.3at (2009)

Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) transmitted a maximum of 30W which assured delivery of
25.5W (600mA) to the Powered Device (PD)
Total throughput was limited to 1000 Mpbs or 1Gbps
The same Mode A and Mode B were used again, and the same pairs are used to transmit
power. The difference with 802.3at is that all four pairs are used to transmit data packets to achieve
1Gbps throughput (Figure 2).
 Figure 2

IEEE 802.3bt (20198)

Two power levels: Type 3 - 60W from Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) and 50W assured at
Powered Device (PD) side. Type 4 - about 90W from PSE and about 80W assured at PD side.
All four pairs transmit data packets and power
Total throughput is10Gbps, a 10x increase over previous generations
Backwards compatible with previous generations of PoE; 802.3af and 802.3at
Figure 3 illustrates a proposed 4-pair power delivery solution

Figure 3