When Power over Ethernet (PoE) devices fail, the root cause is often difficult to find. This is especially true when it comes to physical security and life safety devices. Because of the criticality of these devices, all parties with a vested interest in maintaining their operational status must do what they can to identify PoE problems ahead of time. Failing to do so usually means getting bogged down with time consuming troubleshooting steps.

In this paper, we will explore reasons why physical security and life safety devices must be treated with special care when it comes to PoE. We’ll also point out why PoE problems for these types of devices are often cable related. Lastly, we’ll show how PoE stakeholders can best test and troubleshoot for all types of PoE issues to quickly identify and remediate problems with the least amount of expense and downtime.