The device uses these protocols and standards to support PoE:

• CDP with power consumption—The powered device notifies the device of the amount of power it is consuming. The device does not reply to the power-consumption messages. The device can only supply power to or remove power from the PoE port.

• Cisco intelligent power management—The powered device and the device negotiate through power-negotiation CDP messages for an agreed-upon power-consumption level. The negotiation allows a high-power Cisco powered device, which consumes more than 7 W, to operate at its highest power mode. The powered device first boots up in low-power mode, consumes less than 7 W, and negotiates to obtain enough power to operate in high-power mode. The device changes to high-power mode only when it receives confirmation from the device.

  High-power devices can operate in low-power mode on devices that do not support power-negotiation CDP.

  Cisco intelligent power management is backward-compatible with CDP with power consumption; the device responds according to the CDP message that it receives. CDP is not supported on third-party powered devices; therefore, the device uses the IEEE classification to determine the power usage of the device.

• IEEE 802.3af—The major features of this standard are powered-device discovery, power administration, disconnect detection, and optional powered-device power classification. For more information, see the standard.

• IEEE 802.3at—The PoE+ standard increases the maximum power that can be drawn by a powered device from 15.4 W per port to 30 W per port.

• The Cisco UPOE feature provides the capability to source up to 60 W of power (2 x 30 W) over both signal and spare pairs of the RJ-45 Ethernet cable by using the Layer-2 power negotiation protocols such as CDP or LLDP. An LLDP and CDP request of 30 W and higher in presence of the 4-wire Cisco Proprietary spare-pair power TLV can provide power on the spare pair.

The device detects a Cisco pre-standard or an IEEE-compliant powered device when the PoE-capable port is in the no-shutdown state, PoE is enabled (the default), and the connected device is not being powered by an AC adaptor.

After device detection, the device determines the device power requirements based on its type:

• The initial power allocation is the maximum amount of power that a powered device requires. The device initially allocates this amount of power when it detects and powers the powered device. As the device receives CDP messages from the powered device and as the powered device negotiates power levels with the device through CDP power-negotiation messages, the initial power allocation might be adjusted.

• The device classifies the detected IEEE device within a power consumption class. Based on the available power in the power budget, the device determines if a port can be powered. Table 1 lists these levels.

The device monitors and tracks requests for power and grants power only when it is available. The device tracks its power budget (the amount of power available on the device for PoE). The device performs power-accounting calculations when a port is granted or denied power to keep the power budget up to date.

After power is applied to the port, the device uses CDP to determine the CDP-specific power consumption requirement of the connected Cisco powered devices, which is the amount of power to allocate based on the CDP messages. The device adjusts the power budget accordingly. This does not apply to third-party PoE devices. The device processes a request and either grants or denies power. If the request is granted, the device updates the power budget. If the request is denied, the device ensures that power to the port is turned off, generates a syslog message, and updates the LEDs. Powered devices can also negotiate with the device for more power.

With PoE+, powered devices use IEEE 802.3at and LLDP power with media dependent interface (MDI) type, length, and value descriptions (TLVs), Power-via-MDI TLVs, for negotiating power up to 30 W. Cisco pre-standard devices and Cisco IEEE powered devices can use CDP or the IEEE 802.3at power-via-MDI power negotiation mechanism to request power levels up to 30 W.

Note	The initial allocation for Class 0, Class 3, and Class 4 powered devices is 15.4 W. When a device starts up and uses CDP or LLDP to send a request for more than 15.4 W, it can be allocated up to the maximum of 30 W.

Note	The CDP-specific power consumption requirement is referred to as the actual power consumption requirement in the software configuration guides and command references.

If the device detects a fault caused by an undervoltage, overvoltage, overtemperature, oscillator-fault, or short-circuit condition, it turns off power to the port, generates a syslog message, and updates the power budget and LEDs.

The PoE feature operates the same whether or not the device is a stack member. The power budget is per device and independent of any other device in the stack. Election of a new active device does not affect PoE operation. The active device keeps track of the PoE status for all devices and ports in the stack and includes the status in output displays.

The stacking-capable device also supports StackPower, which allows the power supplies to share the load across multiple systems in a stack when you connect the devices with power stack cables. You can manage the power supplies of up to four stack members as a one large power supply.

The device supports these PoE modes:

• auto —The device automatically detects if the connected device requires power. If the device discovers a powered device connected to the port and if the device has enough power, it grants power, updates the power budget, turns on power to the port on a first-come, first-served basis, and updates the LEDs. For LED information, see the hardware installation guide.

  If the device has enough power for all the powered devices, they all come up. If enough power is available for all powered devices connected to the device, power is turned on to all devices. If there is not enough available PoE, or if a device is disconnected and reconnected while other devices are waiting for power, it cannot be determined which devices are granted or are denied power.

  If granting power would exceed the system power budget, the device denies power, ensures that power to the port is turned off, generates a syslog message, and updates the LEDs. After power has been denied, the device periodically rechecks the power budget and continues to attempt to grant the request for power.

  If a device being powered by the device is then connected to wall power, the device might continue to power the device. The device might continue to report that it is still powering the device whether the device is being powered by the device or receiving power from an AC power source.

  If a powered device is removed, the device automatically detects the disconnect and removes power from the port. You can connect a nonpowered device without damaging it.

  You can specify the maximum wattage that is allowed on the port. If the IEEE class maximum wattage of the powered device is greater than the configured maximum value, the device does not provide power to the port. If the device powers a powered device, but the powered device later requests through CDP messages more than the configured maximum value, the device removes power to the port. The power that was allocated to the powered device is reclaimed into the global power budget. If you do not specify a wattage, the device delivers the maximum value. Use the auto setting on any PoE port. The auto mode is the default setting.

• static —The device pre-allocates power to the port (even when no powered device is connected) and guarantees that power will be available for the port. The device allocates the port configured maximum wattage, and the amount is never adjusted through the IEEE class or by CDP messages from the powered device. Because power is pre-allocated, any powered device that uses less than or equal to the maximum wattage is guaranteed to be powered when it is connected to the static port. The port no longer participates in the first-come, first-served model.

  However, if the powered-device IEEE class is greater than the maximum wattage, the device does not supply power to it. If the device learns through CDP messages that the powered device is consuming more than the maximum wattage, the device shuts down the powered device.

  If you do not specify a wattage, the device pre-allocates the maximum value. The device powers the port only if it discovers a powered device. Use the static setting on a high-priority interface.

• never —The device disables powered-device detection and never powers the PoE port even if an unpowered device is connected. Use this mode only when you want to make sure that power is never applied to a PoE-capable port, making the port a data-only port.

For most situations, the default configuration (auto mode) works well, providing plug-and-play operation. No further configuration is required. However, perform this task to configure a PoE port for a higher priority, to make it data only, or to specify a maximum wattage to disallow high-power powered devices on a port.

Stacking-capable devices also support StackPower, which allows device power supplies to share the load across multiple systems in a stack by connecting up to four devices with power stack cables.