WHAT IS POWER OVER ETHERNET?

Power over Ethernet (PoE) is a technology that lets network cables carry electrical power.

For example, a digital security camera normally requires two connections to be made when it is installed:

• A network connection, in order to be able to communicate with video recording and display equipment.
• A power connection, to deliver the electrical power the camera needs to operate.

Network cables, such as CAT5E and CAT6, comprise eight wires arranged as four twisted pairs.

In 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, two of these pairs are used for sending information, and these are known as the data pairs.

The other two pairs are unused and are referred to as the spare pairs (Gigabit Ethernet uses all four pairs).

Devices that use Power over Ethernet: VoIP phones (the original PoE application), IP Cameras, Wireless.