Michelangelo wrote:
Hi guys. I would like your opinion on the best switches for IP cams. Which are your favourites? Which ones keep on running with excellent performance and which ones have failed you or made you unhappy.
From my experience we have used HP (PWR models), Cisco, D-Link and Planet. We installed at the last site 2610-24/12PWR. Switch works with 14 Avigilon cameras from 1 to 5 megapixel and 2 x encoders ENC-4PORT as well. There aren't any failures or data losts. At the other site we installed 2 x 2610-24PWR that give power and transmit data from 42 Arecont Vision cameras from 1.3 to 3 mpixel. Cisco work without failures as well, but i don't have enough information about this system. Extreme Networks have good edge and core swithces as well. But they are some more expensive then HP. At the other hand budget models like products from D-Link and Planet can work with small quantity of cameras. But in some cases they fail and lost data. For example 8-port D-Link switch with 4 PoE ports works with 5 Mobotix cameras with resolution 3 mpixel (5 camera connected through PoE injector). Sometimes we should go to the site due to switch failures (it losts 1-2 cameras periodically).
If you would use PoE please look at the PoE Class. Some switch vendors (like Zyxel) provide an information about PoE in their switches for example 200 Watts for 24 ports. Then you should look at power consumption of your cameras that count total power consumption and understand how many ports with PoE you could use.
HP promise that their 2610 family with PoE support will work with any PoE device (except some Cisco and Avaya IP phones). Some vendors specify supported PoE Class and overall consumption.
