CoPilot PoE Stability Widget

This widget displays anomalies related to PoE flapping and sudden changes in power draw. Data is presented over a period of 24 hours, and includes date and time details.

APs commonly receive power through an Ethernet backhaul cable connection to an upstream switch. This is known as Power over Ethernet or PoE. When an AP first boots, it selects a power mode based on the available PoE protocols (it can start with PoE and move to PoE+ after a brief interval) and uses this power mode until it reboots.

Occasionally, poorly installed cabling or MDU closet wiring, lack of power on the upstream switch, or a failing power supply on either the AP or the switch can all cause APs to cycle through power modes, while never reaching a steady state. The PoE Stability widget displays information about this situation using the following models:

• Normal: Normal: Indicates a small number of flips, with the vast majority of time spent in a single PoE mode.
• Anomalous: Abnormally large number of flips, normal amount (i.e. vast majority) of time spent in a single PoE mode is the least client-impacting form of anomaly: while there are many flips, the AP spends the vast majority of time in one state (i.e. there is stable behavior over time).
• Anomalous: A normal (i.e. small) number of flips, but an abnormally large amount of time spent in both PoE modes during the flips. This can have an impact because while the AP flips between modes relatively rarely, it is capable of PoE+ but instead spends significant amounts of time operating at the lower-rated PoE.
• Anomalous: An abnormally large number of flips, abnormally large amount of time spent in both PoE modes. The AP regularly flips between modes while also spending a significant amount of time in the suboptimal mode. Spending a significant amount of time in the suboptimal mode alone is not an anomaly: if the AP operates on the lower spec PoE mode most of time but is stable in terms of flips, this is normal behavior.

The severity definitions for PoE anomalies are based on the average number of clients connected to an AP on a given day. If there are fewer than 10 clients, the anomaly severity is considered low. If there are 50 or more clients on a given day, the severity level is considered high. If there are between 10 and 50 clients, the severity level is considered medium.