The introductory Group Test Period (GTP) of the newly established Power over Ethernet Consortium was held the week of April 7 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL--www.iol.unh.edu). The PoE Consortium's first charter meeting was also held during the test-event week. A release from the IOL said the following companies were in attendance: 3Com, Avaya, Foundry Networks, Nortel Networks, PoweDsine, and Texas Instruments. Visitors from these companies spent the week alongside student engineers who executed the PoE Consortium's test suites.
According to the release from UNH-IOL, interoperability testing was performed on a complex matrix of powered devices (PDs) and power sourcing equipment (PSE). Private parametric testing was also performed on both PSEs and PDs. Parametric testing results are only available to the respective owners of the devices under test, while interoperability results are released to the two parties involved.
The PoE Consortium hosted an IEEE 802.3af interim meeting during the week of the GTP, and Texas Instruments was one of the participants. "The IEEE 802.3af standard for the Power over Ethernet market has the potential to enrich the lives of people around the world by allowing standard power to be managed over common Ethernet wire," said Steve Hemmah, product marketing manager for Texas Instruments' power interface products. "By joining UNH as founding members of the Power over Ethernet Consortium, Texas Instruments will work closely with leading customers and industry leaders to test interoperability of IEEE-compliant Ethernet-powered products, and help drive worldwide acceptance of the IEEE 802.3af standard."
Currently, 3Com, Extreme Networks, Nortel Networks, PowerDsine, and Texas Instruments are members of the Power over Ethernet Consortium (Click here to visit the Consortium's Web site).
The IOL at UNH said it continues to look for new members to expand its interoperability testbed. It also said another Power over Ethernet Group Test Period will be held during the summer.