How to Choose a Suitable 48-Port PoE Switch?

Note: FS has removed the S1600-48T4S switches. For customers who are interested in FS S1600-48T4S switches, you can check FS 48-port PoE switches.

With the development of smart home and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), there is a growing adoption of PoE devices like IP cameras, VoIP phone, wireless access points (WAP), IoT devices, etc. Therefore, network switches are required to be able to support numbers of PoE installations, which brings 48-port PoE switch into the market. Then how to choose a suitable 48-port gigabit PoE switch for PoE applications? What are the most considered factors to buy a PoE switch? In this article, these questions will be answered in details.

What to Consider When Choosing a 48-Port PoE Switch?

As we know, PoE switch, offering both data and power for PoE-enabled devices, is an important component for connection with PoE. To meet network deployment requirements, 48-port PoE switch now is a popular option for network builders. Then from users front, what elements do users consider? For more basic details about PoE switches, you can read this article: All You Need to Know About PoE Switches

Power Budget

Power budget is an essential factor that most users will consider when buying a PoE switch. According to the explanation on Wikipedia, the PoE standard (IEEE802.3af) provides up to 15.4W of DC power on each port theoretically, while the PoE+ standard (IEEE802.3at) can offer up to 30W per port, but only 25.5W could transmit to network devices in real time. However, in real time, not every port requires the 30W. Most are still under the 15W range. Therefore, maximum power of each port and how many ports of the switch supporting PoE should be taken into consideration to ensure the device can get enough power.

Acoustic Noise

Noise caused by the PoE switch fan is a troubling problem for many users. Though there is fanless PoE switch like 8-port PoE switches, the capacity of them cannot satisfy users’ demand. Since many of them want to use the high density 48 port PoE gigabit switch in the office or even at home, while the noise from the PoE switch is so disturbing. Therefore, the degree of noise caused by the PoE switch is also a parameter that many users care about.

Cost

48-port PoE switch price is always a hot topic that users care about. For there are various sellers online providing diverse brands of PoE switches, the price of the 48-port switch is also changeable. For example, the Cisco 48-port PoE switch price is $2666, and the HP PoE gigabit switch with 48 ports (J9853A) is $4789. While the price of FS.com 48-port PoE gigabit switch is $689. These different prices allow users to have more choices to select the suitable one for their networks.

Manufacturer or Warranty

Similar to the cost, there are numbers of manufacturers who can produce PoE switch. And they have many small agencies selling their switches. Though the switch price may low, the warranty of the switches cannot be ensured. Nearly all brand manufacturers have claimed that their lifetime support is restricted to authorized sellers. Therefore, when choosing a needed 48-port PoE switch, make sure that the seller is reliable.

Recommendations for Popular 48-Port PoE Switches in the Market

To further illustrate all the factors mentioned above on choosing a suitable PoE switch 48 port, here is a simple comparison between popular 48-port PoE switches in the market.

From the chart, we can see that the capacity and price of these 48-port PoE switches vary from vendor to vendor. In comparison, FS.com S1600-48T4S PoE switch offers four SFP+ ports for high-capacity uplinks, which allows users connect to a high-performance storage server directly or deploy a long-distance uplink to another switch. And its price is its another great advantage among these PoE switches. Cisco and HP 48-port PoE switch requires users invest relatively high cost, but it’s a good choice if users have strict requirements for acoustic noise.

Summary

48-port PoE switch with SFP+ port enables network designers to achieve high-performance and long distance network deployments. Power consumption, acoustic noise and manufacturers are what the users should consider when choosing a PoE switches. After all, nobody can make bricks without straw. Choosing a reliable manufacturer like FS.com who can provide networking solutions for data centers and enterprise networks is also important.

Related Articles:

Deploying 48-Port Gigabit PoE Managed Switch in Different Networks 

Understanding IEEE 802.3bt High Power PoE (Hi-PoE)

FS S5860-24XB-U PoE Switch Guarantees High-reliability Power Supply

How to Choose PoE Switches for IP Camera Systems?