Recommend small switch for R710 APs PoE+ 802.3at ?

[cwf_netman]

I've been doing many web searches for a small PoE+ switch that is known to work well with the R710, but it seems like all I can find is stories about switches with problems not working with 802.3at and the R710.

I need to find a small, inexpensive PoE+ switch (8 ports) to supply power to a max of five R710 APs. It needs to support 802.1q vlans since it will be connected to an upstream switch that is Cisco Catalyst family. It also needs to be pretty inexpensive too... I spent almost all of my budget for this project on five R710s and a ZoneDirector 1200.

Is there a brand and model of inexpensive PoE+ switch that is absolutely 100% known to just simply work with the R710 without a bunch of config hassles or other wierdnesses?

[it_registration]

I cannot say that this will fit all your requirments but the HP 2530 series isn't bad for price and L2 features.  I don't know if it would provide enough power for 5 710's

[dave_watkins_74]

I don't think the HP switch would provide enough overall power for 5 AP's. The closest I can find is the Cisco SG300-10MPP, 124W of POE+ power is available, and it should support LLDP without issue.  WIth the 710's typically nothing "just works", you have to enable LLDP and the LLDP extensions on the switch and configure your ZD to also enable those features for the AP groups from the command line. In saying that, it's a Cisco switch so if Ruckus support can't help you if you do get stuck then I'd be seriously concerned.

No idea if it gets close to your definition of cheap though

[cwf_netman]

Someone else posted that the entire Cisco SG300 line is no-go with the R710 and negotiating 802.3at power. I can't remember where I read that though.... I was already looking at the SG300-10MPP as a possible candidate when I found the post.

I may just have to run this new set of R710 APs on legacy 802.3af instead. I just found I had a spare Cisco compact C3560 8-port 10/100 switch that got removed from a remote office and it's got 124W of PoE capacity. The Internet feed that will be supplying this installation is only 50Mbps anyway, so that will be the real bandwidth bottleneck, and not the 10/100 ports of the switch. Maybe next year I can get the budget for a PoE+ gigabit switch to get rid of the radio limitations of running the R710 on 802.3af power. 

[john_d]

If you're not planning on heavily using 2.4GHz (and I don't think 2.4GHz and either capacity or bandwidth get said a lot in the same sentence!), I don't see the huge advantage of insisting on 802.3at for R710. There's no compromise on 5GHz and the compromise on 2.4GHz is pretty minimal.