Finite Element Analysis of Cables Heating Due to PoE/PoE+

S. Francois[1], and P. Namy[2]
[1]Nexans Research Center, Lyon cedex, France
[2]SIMTEC, Grenoble, France
Published in 2010

Power over Ethernet (PoE/PoE+) is a technology allowing to transmit data and power over the same data cable. The major concern for this technology is the degradation of data transmission performances due to the temperature increase in the cable. To have a better quantitative and qualitative knowledge of the temperature field in the cables, Nexans has developed a 2D finite element thermal model thanks the software COMSOL Multiphysics. In this model, the heat source is due to the joule effect, depending on the intensity level. This thermal model enables us to take into consideration several configurations of cable bundles and to optimize the temperature field thanks to cable design.