FS S5860-24XB-U PoE Testing
Something that we wanted to validate is that PoE+ and PoE++ are working on the switch. We only managed to get a 480W load on the switch itself, but it had no trouble servicing that load for a week across devices from several vendors. Generating more load is something we are working on.
In the meantime, we used our TRENDnet Inline PoE Testers to validate we were getting 802.3bt on ports. We also wanted to see if when it was said “one port of PoE++” it was able to do PoE++ on different ports.
The other cable in this setup we had connected to a Fluke MicroScanner PoE. Here we can see this is a Class 8 PoE++ device. Here is a shot, although it was only showing 71.3W at the Fluke tester.
We tested this with the Fluke on a number of ports and with varying loads on the switch and we consistently saw this result. 71.3W is the Type 4 802.3bt Class 8 90W PoE++ port power we would expect delivered to a powered device.
Next, let us get to power consumption and noise.
Power Consumption and Noise
At idle we saw power consumption in the 58-59W range on 208V power. That is actually fairly good for this class of switch with just the management port connected. Adding PoE devices added a bit more on the overall power consumption due to the new links, but the vast majority of power was being used by the downstream PoE devices. For example, we saw 3.8W of additional power for a 100M PoE camera. Measuring in-line power between the switch and the PoE camera was 3.3W. There is naturally some loss when going through the PSUs and additional power for the link, but it was relatively low.
We got the switch with connected devices over 500W, but this is rated for 740W of PoE plus ~60W for the switch at idle, and then the links. The power the PSUs are drawing is dominated by the PoE devices given the relatively low base level of switch power consumption.
In terms of noise, this switch may look like it has loud shrieking fans, but once booted the switch was actually quite tolerable. It would not be a switch to put on a desk, but in an office equipment closet, it would be at home. This feels like the noise was tuned well for the application.
Overall, the power and noise were right for an office PoE switch, especially with 10GbE/ 25GbE capabilities across all 32 ports.
Final Words
At $3799, this is not a cheap switch. At the same time, it also has features like 10Gbase-T not just 1GbE/ 2.5GbE on the ports. It also has a healthy power budget. This feels like a more substantial PoE++ switch than previous generations that could only do 1GbE or 1/10Gbase-T. We also like the fact that there are 25GbE ports for uplinks.
Having multi-gig speeds for the current and next few generations of WiFi APs is great. We tested this with 100M cameras as well and they worked, but this is overkill for those devices. It would be better to use a PoE/PoE+ 1GbE switch for those and uplink via SFP+ to this than to waste many 10Gbase-T ports on low-speed devices.
We are at an important point in the industry. WiFi APs at 2.5GbE and moving to 5GbE and faster that use PoE++ for power are already here. WiFi 7 AP installations will likely look to 5GbE PoE++ and so this type of switch helps future proof a bit. At the same time, at $3800 there is an enormous premium over 1GbE PoE++ and 2.5GbE PoE++ switches. It feels like this is a good port configuration to future proof an installation, but it also feels like this is technology that will need to see price decreases in the coming quarters.
Overall, the switch worked well. There were a few items that could use polishing with the hardware and UI. Still, this was a really fun switch to test primarily because the port configuraiton was so useful.
Worth noting that from looking at the picture the Fans in the fan module use non-standard connectors making it more difficult to replace them.
This switch is a L3 which explains his price, i’am looking for a L2+ switch with Multi-Gigabit and PoE and couple of 10gbit/s SFP+ but still no sign of it
@flo, have you looked at 2nd Ruckus ICX switches, they are L3, but afordable when you find them 2nd hand.
vs the 800 buck mikrotik i see mikrotik winning here as you can add poe switches for cheap if you have the need – the primary weak link for smb sector going into 2023 is networking and 100g delivers – or you can break out into 25g as well – hopefully there will be more 100gbe swicthes for under 1k coming onto the mkt soon!
This switch actually will not support the full Wifi 7 feature set: TSN is missing. The Broadcom switch family only supports it on select models. TSN is already huge in the professional content production sector (it is called AVB over there), common in smart cars and replacing legacy CAM protocols. Deterministic Ethernet is a very nice feature to have.
I’m kind of confused about the need for 10G PoE, broadcast cameras perhaps?
@Bob H: There are some switches that can pull power through PoE to power themselves, so you could put a switch in a location that is hard to power (say a couple of cameras on a parking lot light pole that has time or photo sensitive power, ie off at night). I don’t think you need 10GbE for it, but who knows.
@Bob H: While a full 24x 10GbE might be slightly overkill it is nice to have that flexibility.
I recently got two of these to go with 10G PoE Highspeed/-bandwidth cameras (5MP@200fps for a research application). Didn’t get to fully test it yet though. Probably pretty niche but it was hard finding any alternatives that don’t completely break the bank
Alpha Novatech heatsink on the main controller chip…
This usually means the company said this “F the cost, let’s get the best stuff”….
my dream switch! now when does unifi and netgear make one?