Network & PoE Calculator.
— Calculator · network & PoE
Sized to year-three load.
Building profile and floor area in — indicative AP count, switching, PoE pool and Cat6A drop count out, with 25% port headroom and 30% drop spare. A planning convention, not a heat-map survey.
Wi-Fi APs
27
Wi-Fi 6E (Aruba 530 / Catalyst 9120)
48-port switches
30
HPE Aruba 6100 / Cisco Catalyst 1300
PoE budget
1.2 kW
baseline pool · 25 W per AP
Cat6A drops
1,471
incl. 30% spare
1,131 portsneeded1,440 portsavailable
Access ports against the switches this sizing buys: 1,131 ports needed of 1,440 ports available, leaving 309 ports spare.
A planning link that reopens this exact configuration — not a quote.
Endpoints to rack · Commercial tier. Endpoints: 91 powered (27 AP · 24 cam · 40 IoT) — computed here. PoE pool: 1,203 W, reached by × 25/12/6 W (per AP/cam/IoT · no headroom) — on a stated assumption. Access ports: 1,131 ports, reached by + 1,040 desk ports (91 PoE + 1,040 data) — computed here. Switching: 30 × 48-port, reached by ÷ 48 with 25% headroom (1,440 ports · 309 spare) — computed here. Uplink: no figure (a design decision) — not sized here. Rack: no figure (no rack height is published) — not sized here.
1,471 Cat6A drops carry this, including 30% spare · 800 concurrent users · PoE pool ≈ 1.2 kW · 25 W PER AP EXPECTED · 12 W PER CAMERA
- users
- 800 concurrent · 1,040 desk ports
- poe endpoints
- 91
- wi-fi class
- Wi-Fi 6E (Aruba 530 / Catalyst 9120)
- switching
- HPE Aruba 6100 / Cisco Catalyst 1300
- vlans
- 6 segments with QoS classes
- users / m²
- 0.1 (planning convention)
- ap density
- 1 per 303 m² · Cisco / Aruba design guides
- ports / user
- 1.3 (planning convention)
- port headroom
- 25%
- drop spare
- 30%
- cabling
- ANSI/TIA-568 · ISO/IEC 11801 Cat6A
- governance
- BICSI N1 · design recommendations
- poe standard
- IEEE 802.3bt Type 3 / 4
- poe per ap
- 25 W expected draw — the Wi-Fi 6E row of the shared PoE device table
- poe per camera
- 12 W expected draw — the IR / outdoor camera row
- poe per iot
- 6 W expected draw — 802.3af class-2/3 endpoint band
- poe headroom
- none on this figure — applied in the PoE Budget tool
+ Model assumptions (12)− Model assumptions
Indicative — AP density modelled against Cisco / Aruba design guides; user, port and PoE figures are planning conventions, not standard-mandated. Final design follows a coverage / capacity heat-map (Ekahau / iBwave), a site survey and consultant review, and verifies cable lengths against IEEE 802.3bt PSE-to-PD derating. Size the final PoE pool in the PoE Budget tool.
What changes this estimate
- Floor plates & riser locations
- Coverage / capacity heat-map (Ekahau / iBwave)
- Actual device schedule per space
- Chosen AP & camera models (PoE class)
A planning link that reopens this exact configuration — not a quote.
Those figures travel with you, labelled as carried and editable there. The PoE figure lands in its “delivered downstream” field, where you say whether it is additional to the device wattages you enter or already inside them; if it is larger than that field can hold it is clamped there, and the arrival says so. A port count is not a rack height. The rack explorer starts a switch row for you at its own minimum height and asks you for the rack units — no record in this practice publishes a per-model figure, so none is offered.
The Engineering Project Workspace opens with 1,203 W of PoE load and 1,131 access ports ready to add. Nothing is added until you choose to. This workspace is kept in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded, nothing reaches TechnoGuru, and clearing your site data clears it.
IT · Networking · PoE · BICSI N1 / ANSI/TIA-568 / IEEE 802.11be informed
Building parameters in, indicative switch count, Wi-Fi access point density, PoE budget (watts), Cat6A run count and port/AP sizing out. AP density from Cisco / Aruba design guides, cabling aligned to BICSI N1 governance and ANSI/TIA-568 structured-cabling practice, PoE pooled at a 25 W-per-AP baseline — with 25% port headroom and 30% cable-drop spare as a planning convention. The PoE pool itself carries no headroom; the PoE Budget tool applies that.
- Sized to
- Year 3
- Port headroom
- 25%
- Drop spare
- 30%
- Cabling
- Cat6A
· Starting configurations
Typology presets — pick a scenario, see the calculator.
Each preset opens a curated configuration page with the engineering reasoning behind the numbers. Then the calculator loads with the same inputs — change them and the URL stays shareable.
Network Calculator · Healthcare
Hospital block, 6,000 m2: 27 APs, 10-VLAN clinical split
Open presetNetwork Calculator · Hospitality
Hotel, 12,000 m2: 34 APs, IoT-heavy 8-VLAN fabric
Open presetNetwork Calculator · Corporate office
Corporate office, 5,000 m2: 17 APs, commercial-tier access layer
Open preset· Engineering advisory · Network & PoE Calculator
What the sizing answer means for the building.
Switch count and PoE budget are the visible outputs, but the four notes below frame what the sizing decision predicts about rack space, cable plant, lifecycle and the building's growth path.
Deployment observations
- Sizing to year-three demand with a 30 percent cable-drop spare is the disciplined default for commercial buildings — but raise that spare to 50 percent for healthcare and mission-critical campuses, where device-count growth is non-linear and each port is on the critical path.
- PoE budget at switch level must be specified at full-load worst-case (e.g. all cameras and APs simultaneously powered), not nominal — the calculator already sums every PoE device at its full per-device planning wattage, with no simultaneity discount. Verify with the actual PoE class table for the chosen camera and AP models before ordering switches.
- Wi-Fi 7 versus Wi-Fi 6E is a 5-7 year decision, not a today decision. The price gap to Wi-Fi 6E has closed; if the building is new construction with a 7-year refresh horizon, the answer is Wi-Fi 7 today. Retrofit decisions follow the existing cable plant's PoE capacity.
Redundancy posture
- 10G uplinks per access switch should be at least dual-pathed to the core for any building above 200 endpoints — single-uplink topologies have a single point of failure that takes a floor offline on switchport degradation. The marginal cost is one 10G port per switch.
Operational notes
- Stacked-switch configuration (3-4 PoE+ switches in a stack) is one logical entity for operations — single management plane, single configuration baseline, automatic failover. Specify stack-capable switches as the floor; the marginal price difference is paid back in the first MAC-address move-add-change.
- Cable-plant labelling against the architect's grid (room-system-cable_id) is the discipline that pays back at every device move. Without labelling, every change becomes a tracing exercise; with labelling, a typical office floor's move takes hours, not days.
Lifecycle implications
- Cat6A copper plant is a 20-year asset — three switch generations and two Wi-Fi generations ride the same cable. The cost of pulling Cat6A versus Cat6 at first install is 8-12 percent; the cost of rip-and-replace later is 4-6x the differential. Specify Cat6A as the floor.
- Switch refresh cadence is 7-9 years for enterprise (Cisco / Aruba / Juniper) versus 5-7 years for SMB (Ubiquiti / Netgear). The choice is set by the operations team's tolerance for management upgrade cycles, not by the day-one hardware tier.
Verification status: Conditional engineering model — assumptions stated · Independently reference-tested · reviewed 2026-08-30
· Engineering notes
How to read this tool’s output
Stage 2 (survey) or stage 3 (design). Use during cabling and switch-sizing conversations with the IT lead.
The assumptions, limits and reference architectures behind this
What an engineer should know
The assumptions behind the numbers this tool produces.
- Sized to year-three load — switches, Wi-Fi 7 access points, PoE budget, Cat6A run count and switch-tier selection on Cisco / HPE Aruba / Juniper-class enterprise gear.
- The PoE figure here is a baseline pool (25 W per AP, 12 W per camera, 6 W per IoT device) — an expected draw at the powered device, not a datasheet maximum — with no headroom applied. Size the final PoE pool, with 30% design headroom, in the PoE Budget tool.
When this tool is the right one
The project moments and room types this is built for.
- Corporate fit-out sizing the year-three switch and AP count.
- Educational campus sizing classroom Wi-Fi against device density.
- Hospitality property sizing public Wi-Fi + back-of-house network.
What changes the answer in practice
Field conditions that move the result away from the planning figure.
- Wi-Fi 7 6 GHz performance requires Cat6A backbone — Cat6 is the practical limit for 802.11ax+ AP density.
- Dense classrooms and boardrooms drive AP count more than coverage area.
Defensible starting architectures
Vendor-neutral reference points, not a recommendation to buy — the right answer is the one that survives your site survey.
- Cisco Catalyst / HPE Aruba CX / Juniper EX core-distribution layer with Wi-Fi 7 APs on Cat6A backbone, sized to year-three load.
Common mistakes
Failure patterns we see on real projects.
- Sizing to year-zero load — leaves headroom for less than one tenant change.
- Treating PoE budget as flat — surveillance cameras with IR illumination spike the PoE draw.
How this lands against adjacent systems
What else has to be agreed before this output is safe to build to.
- Pairs with the PoE Budget Calculator for the PoE-class breakdown by device family.
What this tool does not do
Deliberate limits — where the estimate stops and design begins.
- Does not size structured cabling pathway capacity — use the rack explorer for that.
Where this tool fits
The building types this output is calibrated for — and, where we have said so, the ones it is not.
Best suited for
Not the tool to reach for
The standards and technologies this touches
Reference pages for the protocols, standards and systems behind this tool’s output.
· Example use
Open this calculator at its shipped defaults — the office / corporate profile at 8,000 m², with 24 IP cameras, 40 IoT endpoints and 6 VLAN segments — and it returns 27 Wi-Fi APs, 800 concurrent users, 30 access switches at 48 ports each, 1,471 Cat6A drops and a 1,203 W baseline PoE pool across 91 PoE endpoints. Every figure in that sentence is produced by the engine on this page rather than written beside it. The drop count carries 30 percent spare and the port count 25 percent headroom; the PoE pool is a baseline with no headroom applied, which is what the PoE Budget tool adds. The same office under-designed at year-one demand falls over by year three — and rewiring an occupied building is the most expensive mistake in low-voltage.
· Frequently asked
Network sizing —
what people ask first.
Why size to year-three, and where exactly does the headroom sit?
Networks rarely shrink. Headcount grows, devices multiply, and PoE-powered cameras, access readers and AV endpoints get added every year. Sizing to year-one demand forces a refresh inside the warranty period. The spare in this model sits in two named places: 25 percent on the port count that drives the switch count, and 30 percent on the Cat6A drop count. It does not sit on the PoE pool — that figure is the raw device draw, and the PoE Budget tool is where the 30 percent PoE design headroom is applied.
Wi-Fi 7 — is it really the right call today?
For new buildings, yes. The price gap to Wi-Fi 6E has closed, the 6 GHz band gives the cleanest spectrum we have ever had, and the access-point lifecycle is seven years minimum. Specifying Wi-Fi 6 today means a refresh in 2029. Wi-Fi 7 holds.
Cat6A or Cat7?
Cat6A. It is the workhorse standard, supports 10 Gbps to 100 metres, has a stable connector ecosystem and is half the price of Cat7. Cat7 has no meaningful field advantage in commercial buildings; Cat8 is data-centre territory only.
Which switch and AP brands?
Cisco Catalyst and Meraki for enterprise, Aruba for mixed estates, Ruckus for hospitality, Ubiquiti UniFi for premium residential and small commercial. PoE budgeting is identical across vendors; the choice is on management, warranty and lifecycle.
What about segmentation, VLANs and security?
Standard scope. Every project ships with a VLAN plan — corporate, guest, IoT, AV, ELV, BMS — and a layer-three policy at the core. Zero-trust micro-segmentation is an upgrade option, recommended for healthcare, finance and any building with sensitive data flows.
Engineering toolkit
Next in this sequence
Calculators whose inputs or outputs connect to this one.
- IT · Wi-Fi · Coverage
Wi-Fi AP Planner
Floor area, ceiling height, wall material and client density in — AP count, PoE budget, switch ports and channel-plan advice out. Wi-Fi 6 / 6E / 7 with material-derated coverage and hex-packed cell preview.
APs · PoE · channelsOpen - IT · IEEE 802.3
PoE Budget Calculator
PoE-powered device counts in — total watts, switch tier (PoE+ / PoE++ Type 3 / Type 4), and SKU class out. 30% headroom built in.
Watts · class · SKUOpen - AV · Network · BMS
Rack & Architecture Explorer
A reference AV cinema rack, IT/network rack and BMS panel. Hover any unit and we tell you what it does and why it's sized that way. The boring rack that runs the room.
3 racks · hover detailOpen
· Begin
Specifying a network
that has to hold for a decade?
Send the floor plates, the headcount, the device profile and the operating context. We will return a sized design within two working days; pricing follows a written estimate after review.