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cwf_netman

5 Messages

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140 Points

Tue, May 3, 2016 5:32 PM

Recommend small switch for R710 APs PoE+ 802.3at ?

I've been doing many web searches for a small PoE+ switch that is known to work well with the R710, but it seems like all I can find is stories about switches with problems not working with 802.3at and the R710.

I need to find a small, inexpensive PoE+ switch (8 ports) to supply power to a max of five R710 APs. It needs to support 802.1q vlans since it will be connected to an upstream switch that is Cisco Catalyst family. It also needs to be pretty inexpensive too... I spent almost all of my budget for this project on five R710s and a ZoneDirector 1200.

Is there a brand and model of inexpensive PoE+ switch that is absolutely 100% known to just simply work with the R710 without a bunch of config hassles or other wierdnesses?

Question

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Updated 

4 years ago

16

7

Responses

it_registration

66 Messages

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1.2K Points

5 years ago

I cannot say that this will fit all your requirments but the HP 2530 series isn't bad for price and L2 features.  I don't know if it would provide enough power for 5 710's

0

dave_watkins

74 Messages

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1.2K Points

5 years ago

I don't think the HP switch would provide enough overall power for 5 AP's. The closest I can find is the Cisco SG300-10MPP, 124W of POE+ power is available, and it should support LLDP without issue.  WIth the 710's typically nothing "just works", you have to enable LLDP and the LLDP extensions on the switch and configure your ZD to also enable those features for the AP groups from the command line. In saying that, it's a Cisco switch so if Ruckus support can't help you if you do get stuck then I'd be seriously concerned.

No idea if it gets close to your definition of cheap though

0

0

cwf_netman

5 Messages

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140 Points

5 years ago

Someone else posted that the entire Cisco SG300 line is no-go with the R710 and negotiating 802.3at power. I can't remember where I read that though.... I was already looking at the SG300-10MPP as a possible candidate when I found the post.

I may just have to run this new set of R710 APs on legacy 802.3af instead. I just found I had a spare Cisco compact C3560 8-port 10/100 switch that got removed from a remote office and it's got 124W of PoE capacity. The Internet feed that will be supplying this installation is only 50Mbps anyway, so that will be the real bandwidth bottleneck, and not the 10/100 ports of the switch. Maybe next year I can get the budget for a PoE+ gigabit switch to get rid of the radio limitations of running the R710 on 802.3af power. 

3

john_d

Champion

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556 Messages

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10.5K Points

If you're not planning on heavily using 2.4GHz (and I don't think 2.4GHz and either capacity or bandwidth get said a lot in the same sentence!), I don't see the huge advantage of insisting on 802.3at for R710. There's no compromise on 5GHz and the compromise on 2.4GHz is pretty minimal.

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5 years ago

0

cwf_netman

5 Messages

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140 Points

The majority of client wifi devices at the location are still 2.4GHz, although that is changing as time marches on. Right now the WiFi infrastructure there is 3 Cisco Aironet APs, 2 of them do 802.11an, and one is only 802.11bg. The internet feed is only hardwired to one of the 802.11an APs and the other two APs are wireless repeater-clients off of the first one. They're actually not doing a terribly bad job most of the time, but whenever the city council meeting hall gets really jam-packed full of people, the Ciscos fall on their faces and implode, sometimes hanging up so badly I have to power-cycle them.

The Ruckus R710s ought to blow the old Ciscos away when the client density peaks, even with the reduced function of the 2.4 radios.

Like

5 years ago

0

john_d

Champion

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556 Messages

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10.5K Points

Ah, gotcha. I definitely expect the 710 to blow away those older Cisco units, and the reduced 2.4GHz functionality of the R710 matches the functionality (3 spatial stream, slightly weaker transmit power, much better Rx sensitivity) of some of the lower-end Ruckus AP's, which are already phenomenal.

Like

5 years ago

0

it_registration

66 Messages

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1.2K Points

5 years ago

So I've used the heck out of various Microsemi PowerDsine products, both single port and multiple port.  Love them.

Single Port: http://www.microsemi.com/products/poe-systems/pd-9501g#introduction

Multiport: http://www.microsemi.com/products/poe-systems/pd-9500g-4-pair-high-power-family

They have many offerings, so take a look around, but I believe the 9500 series is what you want from a POE+ need.

Actually I like them so much, I will not be buying POE switches when I replace but will add these instead.  A little extra cabling but very cheap considering and they just work.

3

0

cwf_netman

5 Messages

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140 Points

A hundred bucks for a single port unit and a thousand bucks for a 6-port rack mount PoE injector is exhorbitant prices.

Like

5 years ago

0

it_registration

66 Messages

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1.2K Points

I started with single ports.  but now I buy the 24 port models for ~ $1,000.  I have no idea what a 6 port costs.

Like

5 years ago

0

cwf_netman

5 Messages

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140 Points

The 24-port model is $1499 list price.

The 6-port model is $1199 list price.

My budget for a PoE+ switch would've been about $300.

I need power for only 5 APs and the unit has to be located in a small audio/video closet at the back of a city council meeting auditorium, very far away from the main computer room or even the nearest regular network wiring closet since the building is very old (circa 1927) and its layout is terrible for network wiring.

The Cisco Small Business SG300-10MPP would've been perfect for $230 at newegg, too bad there is some sort of unresolvable 802.3at incompatibility between it and the R710 

Like

5 years ago

0

chennai_itsupport

34 Messages

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518 Points

5 years ago

how about HP 1910-8G-PoE+ (180W) Switch(JG350A) not sure if its compatible with R710 for lacp

0

0

rob_stokoe

1 Message

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86 Points

5 years ago

I can confirm the R710 will not go into PoE+ / 802.3at with a Cisco SG300. The AP and switch communicate over LLDP and each can pass LLDP data and see each other as an LLDP neighbour.

However the two appear to send information about power over different TLVs, the AP advertises its power requirements to the switch under a '802.3 Power Over MDI' TLV which the switch uses to correctly set the port to PoE+ but the switch advertises its PoE capabilities to the AP on via the 'LLDP MED PoE-PSE' TLV which the AP seems to ignore.

Given the amount of problems with this (and assuming Ruckus don't want to alienate the 60% of the market that uses Cisco switches) I'm really hoping there's a fix in the next firmware (maybe a command line switch to allow a forced 'at' mode please)

Could one of the mods here please confirm if this is in the pipeline for the next firmware release - thanks.

0

monnat_systems

824 Messages

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13.2K Points

5 years ago

how about ZyXEL GS1900 Series of 8/16/24-port GbE Smart Managed Switch with Gigabit speed with the IEEE 802.3at Power over Ethernet (PoE) Plus standard. also supports LLDP and IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging ???

ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/GS1900-8HP/datash...

they are not that expensive on ebay 8 port switch is less than $100

1

0

hayk

367 Messages

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4.7K Points

Does the ZyXEL GS1900 Series confirmed to work for the R710???, I really want to know since my R710 is stuck at af mode ? 

I currently have a Engenius EGS5212FP which support LLDP, but doesn't seem to have LLDP power via MDI support or at least I can't find any documentation even in the CLI manual.

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4 years ago

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