Ubiquiti switch for 800 meters PoE: 13 watts and 10 Mbit/s at the end of the line
Ubiquiti is launching a switch that delivers PoE and data over 800 meters. At the end of the line, 13 watts and 10 Mbit/s remain. To achieve this, a specific cable and a hardware endpoint are required in addition to the switch.
Cabling standards specify a maximum channel length of 100 meters for copper Ethernet. Beyond that, reliable operation is no longer guaranteed with conventional technology. This applies to data as well as Power over Ethernet, or PoE for short, which sends power and data over the same cable. Anyone wanting to operate a surveillance camera at the end of a large property or a sensor outdoors therefore needs a solution for both.
Ubiquiti aims to push this limit with a long-range switch. The USW-LR-Switch-8-PoE features eight ports that deliver power and data over a single cable for up to 800 meters – though only with the manufacturer's cable and an additional hardware endpoint at the far end of each line.
What the switch can do – and what it cannot
The switch offers eight RJ45 ports, all of which provide PoE according to the PoE++ standard. However, their speed is limited – and it drops in two stages with distance. According to Ubiquiti, the switch typically negotiates 100 Mbit/s up to a distance of around 400 meters. Beyond that, the rate drops to 10 Mbit/s. This is sufficient for a sensor that sends a reading every few minutes, and also for a medium-quality video stream. But it is not enough for the quality provided by state-of-the-art cameras. In addition, there are two separate network connections: a Gigabit uplink and an SFP port that accepts fiber optics.
The second compromise concerns power. At the switch, each port delivers up to 90 watts. At the end of an 800-meter cable, 13 watts remain – enough for an energy-efficient camera or a simple sensor, but not for a pan-tilt surveillance camera requiring 51 watts. That will only run up to about 200 meters. At 100 meters, 71.3 watts still arrive.
The endpoint: translator, not amplifier
A UACC-LR endpoint is required at the far end of every long run. If all ports are fully utilized, that means eight units. It is not an amplifier that refreshes and passes on the signal, but a translator: it receives the proprietary long-range signal and passes it on to the end device as standard-compliant Ethernet and standard PoE. Without it, the limit remains the usual 100 meters.
Then there is the cable. Ubiquiti specifies the full range only with its own outdoor cable, the UACC-Cable-C5e-Outdoor-Pro-305M-W. The manufacturer does not currently offer a continuous 800-meter cable – it supplies the cable in 305-meter (1000-foot) rolls. For a single 800-meter run, three rolls are therefore needed, which must be fitted with RJ45 connectors on-site and connected at two joints with waterproof outdoor couplers.
The bill for an 800-meter run: 274 US dollars for the switch, 99 US dollars for the endpoint, and three times 149 US dollars for the cable, totaling 447 US dollars. That makes 820 US dollars in total, plus further expenses for couplers and the like, before the first end device is even connected. Anyone needing multiple runs multiplies the endpoint and cable portion accordingly.
We are striving to add the switch, the UACC-LR endpoint, and the 305-meter outdoor cable to our product range as soon as possible.
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