Switches were designed to, well, switch. PoE Switches are designed with power management and have to distribute different power as required to ports but there is often not enough power for all devices plus the power required to complete the primary task – switching. Networks that have multiple devices like IP phones, IP cameras, wireless access points quickly go beyond the limited capacity of managed power PoE switches. As more PoE devices continue to grow in capabilities and market share this managed power limitation will become more and more evident. Midspans, in contrast to switches, were designed to provide full power on every port and deliver safe and reliable power based on the industry standards (IEEE802.3af/at).

Rather than relying on power management in a switch use a midspan that can deliver full power (15.4W) to every port for all PoE-enabled devices now and in the future.