A manufacturer has two models of switch with built-in LED display showing:
- PoE usage per port
- Total PoE usage
- Remaining PoE power
They are unmanaged Gig-E switches, 802.3at capable on all ports, but with a total budget of 130 Watts.
See the specs from Syncom here:
It's an interesting feature, since PoE problems can be notoriously difficult to troubleshoot, but we see a couple of drawbacks to this line:
- Unmanaged models only. Integrators doing medium to large systems typically lean heavily toward managed switches.
- Almost 3/4 of integrators lean toward three brands: Cisco, Netgear, and HP. Though some stick to lesser known lines (D-Link, Avaya, Comnet, etc.), newcomers in this market are very rare.
- Pricing is similar to managed 802.3at models, about $350 online.
What do you think? Is this something you'd use?