My house has a 10-year-old Cat 6 network with home runs to the IT closet. None of the network cables should be over 50m or so. I'm assuming I can get 10 GbE out of them, or at the very least multigigabit.
Currently, I use a Cisco 24-port PoE-enabled switch, and have 4 Ruckus ZoneFlex 7982 access points and a ZoneDirector 1100 controller. The access points use PoE, as do maybe two other network-connected devices. So fewer than 8 devices actually utilize the PoE feature of the switch.
Everything works beautifully. But I want to eventually move to WiFi 6 and upgrade my network. So I'm wondering what options exist for the upgrade. I've been happy with Ruckus, so moving up to their more modern access points and controllers is reasonable. The question then is what switch to use for the network's backbone. The ideal switch would have the following qualities:
1) At least 24 ports, with at least 12 ports multi-gigabit or (ideally) 10 Gbase-T (RJ45). It could have SFP+ to connect to my server (also on the rack) or for uplink connections to another switch, but the majority of connections need to be RJ45.
2) At least 8 ports PoE. (I'm not sure what level / number of plus signs would be required for my purposes, but I doubt I need the highest-powered option.) This could be on a separate switch with good uplink connections.
3) Fanless or very quiet fans, as this is in a closet in my home office.
4) Rack-mountable
I've looked at some options from Netgear, Ruckus ICX, and FS that seem to check at least some of the boxes. Any suggestions for a switch (or combination of switches) that would be ideal for my upgrade plans?
Michael
Currently, I use a Cisco 24-port PoE-enabled switch, and have 4 Ruckus ZoneFlex 7982 access points and a ZoneDirector 1100 controller. The access points use PoE, as do maybe two other network-connected devices. So fewer than 8 devices actually utilize the PoE feature of the switch.
Everything works beautifully. But I want to eventually move to WiFi 6 and upgrade my network. So I'm wondering what options exist for the upgrade. I've been happy with Ruckus, so moving up to their more modern access points and controllers is reasonable. The question then is what switch to use for the network's backbone. The ideal switch would have the following qualities:
1) At least 24 ports, with at least 12 ports multi-gigabit or (ideally) 10 Gbase-T (RJ45). It could have SFP+ to connect to my server (also on the rack) or for uplink connections to another switch, but the majority of connections need to be RJ45.
2) At least 8 ports PoE. (I'm not sure what level / number of plus signs would be required for my purposes, but I doubt I need the highest-powered option.) This could be on a separate switch with good uplink connections.
3) Fanless or very quiet fans, as this is in a closet in my home office.
4) Rack-mountable
I've looked at some options from Netgear, Ruckus ICX, and FS that seem to check at least some of the boxes. Any suggestions for a switch (or combination of switches) that would be ideal for my upgrade plans?
Michael
