PoE Switch

[RickH]

Hi guys,

We may be moving over to VoIP. We have been offered 2 options regarding powering the phones. There will be around 35+ phones and my question is:

What is the best way to power them? I was thinking with the PoE, if there was a power outage we would still be able to use our phones with a UPS for around 10-15 mins. The downside is if the switch goes down we have no phone system until we fix it or find a replacement.

With powering them from a power brick, If the power goes, no one can use them but one less point of failure.

What are your thoughts on this please?

[CyberNerd]

What are your thoughts on this please?

A decent PoE switch with QoS and UPS would be my recommendation

[stevetheb]

We went down the POE route - much tidier and easier to install as well. We still have one phone that runs on a normal phone line - in case of emergencies.

[AngryTechnician]

PoE on the switch is definitely the better route in my opinion. Depending on the number of phones per switch it may also end up cheaper, in which case you could spend the difference on a "guaranteed to-to-fix" warranty service for the switch.

[Domino]

The downside is if the switch goes down we have no phone system until we fix it or find a replacement.

With powering them from a power brick, If the power goes, no one can use them but one less point of failure.

Er...if they're VOIP, and the switch goes down, then regardless of how they're powered they're not gonna be passing any voice traffic anyway?

[RickH]

Er...if they're VOIP, and the switch goes down, then regardless of how they're powered they're not gonna be passing any voice traffic anyway?

Well, The VoIP server and the switch would be on the UPS, Our modem is already on one of our UPS's. Unless i'm missing something?

[Domino]

Well then a power brick per phone is one MORE point of failure, not less.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - if the switch is down, you're not getting phone calls. It doesn't matter where the handsets get their power from.

[RickH]

Right, Thanks Domino. Still no closer to my answer but your making me think more into it

[Domino]

In this instance, having a power brick per phone is an extra level of complexity you do not need, as it provides you with no extra redundancy.

POE is absolutely the way to go - just make sure, as others have said, that you've an acceptable level of support for it in place.

[glennda]

When i worked out the UPS requirements for having switches, phone system, routers, modems, fibre converters etc all on the UPS it was a few k to get decent uptime.

I just put in an annalogue phone in reception area for emergency calls and SLT where happy with that.