Ethernet for starters - 11 - Standards PoE (802.3xx) explained

Two- and four-pair Ethernet

The original IEEE 802.3af (Year 2003) PoE standard provides up to 15.4 W of DC power (minimum 44 V DC and 350 mA) on each port. Only 12.95 W is assured to be available at the powered device, as some power dissipates in the cable.

The IEEE 802.3at (Year 2009) PoE standard also known as PoE+ or PoE plus, provides up to 25.5 W of power for Type 2 devices. The 2009 standard prohibits a powered device from using all four pairs for power. Both of these standards have since been incorporated into the IEEE 802.3-2012 publication.

The IEEE 802.3bt (Year 2018) standard further expands the power capabilities of 802.3at. It is also known as PoE++ or 4PPoE. The standard introduces two additional power types: up to 51 W delivered power (Type 3) and up to 71.3 W delivered power (Type 4). Each pair of twisted pairs needs to handle a current of up to 600 mA (Type 3) or 960 mA (Type 4). Additionally, support for 2.5GBASE-T, 5GBASE-T and 10GBASE-T is included. This development opens the door to new applications and expands the use of applications such as high-performance wireless access points and surveillance cameras.

Single-pair Ethernet

The IEEE 802.3bu (Year 2016) amendment introduced single-pair Power over Data Lines (PoDL) for the single-pair Ethernet standards 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1 intended for automotive and industrial applications. On the two-pair or four-pair standards, the same power voltage is applied to each conductor of the pair, so that within each pair there is no differential voltage other than that representing the transmitted data. With single-pair Ethernet, power is transmitted in parallel to the data. PoDL initially defined ten power classes, ranging from 0.5 to 50 W (at PD).

Subsequently, PoDL was added to the single-pair variants 10BASE-T1, 2.5GBASE-T1, 5GBASE-T1, and 10GBASE-T1 and as of 2021 includes a total of 15 power classes with additional intermediate voltage and power levels.