Ethernet Alliance Plugfest Showcases 100 Percent Interoperability of IEEE 802.3™ Power Over Ethernet (PoE) Products

BEAVERTON, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 – The Ethernet Alliance, a global consortium dedicated to the continued success and advancement of Ethernet technologies, today shared details of its Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) Plugfest at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) in Durham, New Hampshire. The event demonstrated IEEE 802.3™-based PoE interoperability among devices from Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD), Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Linear Technology, Microsemi (Nasdaq: MSCC) and Texas Instruments.

“The plugfest showed that there is clearly market enthusiasm for standards-based PoE interoperability,” said John D’Ambrosia, chair, Ethernet Alliance, and senior principal engineer, Huawei. “As a facilitator of industry collaboration, the Ethernet Alliance was pleased to bring together a wide variety of vendors to test and validate the inherent interoperability designed into IEEE 802.3 PoE specifications. The impressive results from this plugfest are in line with what industry requires and expects from a standards-based solution.”

Held March 25-31, 2016, at UNH-IOL’s state-of-the-art lab, the Ethernet Alliance’s interoperability test event attracted a range of equipment and technology vendors. Their devices were tested in accordance with two previously released IEEE 802.3 PoE specifications, IEEE 802.3af™1 and IEEE 802.3at™2 , against a variety of scenarios, including increased stress conditions. All of the product combinations were shown to interoperate over the worst-case CAT-5e cabling. In addition, all tested devices were shown to pass 99 percent of test cases related to standards conformance.

“PoE has played a key role in supporting wireless access and Internet Protocol telephony, and the technology stands to accelerate a host of emerging application spaces,” said David Tremblay, system architect for Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, and a member of the Ethernet Alliance. “The Ethernet Alliance plugfest offered a valuable, multi-vendor environment in which our members could perform in-depth industry interoperability testing with the goal of boosting end-user confidence around PoE deployment.”

For more information about the Ethernet Alliance, please visit http://www.ethernetalliance.org, follow @EthernetAllianc on Twitter, visit its Facebook page, or join its LinkedIn group.

About the UNH-IOL 
Founded in 1988, the UNH-IOL provides independent, broad-based interoperability and standards conformance testing for data, telecommunications and storage networking products and technologies. Combin ing extensive staff experience, standards-bodies participation and a 32,000+ square foot facility, the UNH-IOL helps companies efficiently and cost-effectively deliver products to the market.

About the Ethernet Alliance
The Ethernet Alliance is a global consortium that includes system and component vendors, industry experts, and university and government professionals who are committed to the continued success and expansion of Ethernet technology. The Ethernet Alliance takes Ethernet standards to market by supporting activities that span from incubation of new Ethernet technologies to interoperability demonstrations and education.

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Media Contact: 
Melissa Power 
Interprose Public Relations
P: 401-454-1314 E: melissa.power@interprosepr.com