Zyxel XMG2230-28HP is an L3 access switch with 24 Ethernet ports (2.5G) and 4 SFP+ uplinks (10G). Every copper port supports PoE++ (IEEE 802.3bt) and can deliver up to 60W. This is exactly the target scenario: deploying Wi-Fi 7 wireless access points, for which a gigabit port becomes a "bottleneck", and which also require "boosted" PoE power.
But here's what's really interesting - the switch implements features that aren't typical for this price segment. For example, there's an external DC input that lets you reserve backup power or double the PoE budget to 1440W, plus a Networked AV configuration mode that can save engineers a ton of time when setting up AVoIP. Let's go through everything in order.
24x 2.5G + 4x 10G SFP+ ports
Non-blocking fabric, up to 200 Gbps
PoE++ 802.3bt
Up to 60W per port
External DC input
PoE budget expandable up to 1440W
Networked AV
Built-in AVoIP configuration wizard
When a Gigabit Isn't Enough
The Multi-Gig concept didn't appear out of nowhere. A modern wireless AP can push out more than 1 Gbps of aggregated traffic - which forces you to think about upgrading your network. Replacing copper with Cat6A can deliver a tenfold speed increase (10GBASE-T), but try to replace all the cabling in a mid-size hotel - that's not just expensive, it's often simply impossible. 2.5 GBASE-T, however, will work just fine over the same Cat5e/6 that's already run everywhere.
The entire XMG2230 series was designed for exactly this kind of targeted upgrade: give access points high speed and power, without re-running cabling. The upgrade cost is reasonable, and the switchover itself involves minimal downtime.
Let's calculate the full non-blocking bandwidth for this configuration: (24 ports x 2.5G + 4 ports x 10G) x 2 (duplex) = 200 Gbps. The fabric really is non-blocking - every port can be pushed to its maximum with no degradation.
Using a minimum frame size of 64 bytes, plus an 8-byte preamble and a 12-byte inter-frame gap, the minimum frame comes out to 84 bytes (672 bits). The line-rate formula gives 100 Gbit/s / 672 bits = 148.8 Mpps, matching the sum across all ports: 24 × 3.72 Mpps (2.5G ports) = 89.28 Mpps and 4 × 14.88 Mpps (10G ports) = 59.52 Mpps. In other words, the switch implements true line-rate forwarding on all interfaces at once - no marketing rounding.
One quirk worth keeping in mind: the packet buffer size is only 2 MB. For most access-point or surveillance-camera scenarios this won't be an issue, but as an aggregation switch funneling many 2.5G ports into a single 10G uplink, the small buffer can lead to packet loss during microbursts.
As for the rest of the specs - a 32K MAC table is plenty for an access switch, and support for 12 KB jumbo frames means it can be used in iSCSI/NAS scenarios.
Switch or Power Supply
PoE is this model's strongest suit. Every copper port without exception supports the IEEE 802.3bt PoE++ standard. Each one can deliver up to 60W, but the built-in power supply has a PoE budget of 700W - roughly 29W per port if every port were loaded simultaneously.
Zyxel is upfront that the choice is yours - add reserve power or expansion capacity only when you actually need it. The XMG2230-28HP has a trump card: an external DC input (50-57V DC) that lets you scale the PoE budget up to a solid 1440W.
Telecom carrier sites often already have a -48V DC infrastructure feeding radio relay stations, OLTs, DWDM equipment, and similar gear. That alone isn't enough for a direct connection, so you'd need a DC/DC boost converter, or an AC/DC power supply with sufficient headroom.
This option works in two modes:
- Active-standby redundancy. Under normal conditions the switch runs on its built-in PSU; if that source is ever lost, the built-in ATS switches to the backup with no downtime.
- PoE budget expansion. Every PoE port can be loaded at a full 60W with no shortfall - from heated outdoor PTZ cameras to industrial PCs.
Overall power figures, useful for sizing a UPS:
- No load on ports, no PoE: AC 32.6W / DC 25.5W
- Full load on all ports, no PoE: AC 64.7W / DC 51.5W
- Full load on all ports, PoE at maximum: AC 842.3W / DC 1519.1W
Heat dissipation comes out to 2856 BTU/hr, which should be accounted for when deploying in a server room or equipment closet.
To save on electricity, PoE can be scheduled to turn on and off - handy for offices that close at night or weekends. There's also a genuinely useful Auto PD Recovery option: the device periodically "pings" the PD, and if it stops responding, it power-cycles it - no more late-night trips to reboot a frozen camera.
LLDP Power via MDI
Let's talk separately about how the consumer device and the switch negotiate power. When you plug a device into a PoE port, it reports its power class. The switch uses that to allocate a fixed power "ceiling". The problem is that there aren't many classes (0 through 8), and each one is a fairly coarse rounding.
Take a Class 4 access point (up to 30W) as an example. The switch has to reserve the full 30W for it, even if the device in reality can't draw more than 18W - wasting 12W of the PoE budget. If half your access points are like this and you only have the built-in PSU, you'd lose 144W, roughly 20% of the PoE budget.
LLDP Power via MDI avoids this. After the link comes up, the device and switch dynamically negotiate power consumption:
- The device says: "I actually need 18W, priority high".
- The switch replies: "My available budget is 120W, here's your allocation."
If a device needs less than its assigned hardware class, the switch returns the freed-up wattage to the shared budget, where it can be allocated to other devices - power distributed according to actual demand rather than formal class. This only works with devices that support LLDP-MED power negotiation, which in practice covers nearly all modern access points and cameras.
Power Reservation
By default, the switch reserves power per port based on the device's hardware class (Classification mode). The alternative is to manually configure a limit based on actual consumption (Consumption mode). This lets you pack the switch more densely, but you take on the risk of potentially exceeding the budget.
The simplest analogy is airline overbooking - selling more tickets than there are seats on the plane, to hedge against no-shows. But if every passenger shows up, or the aircraft gets swapped for a smaller one, having a ticket won't guarantee a seat.
It's the same with the PoE budget - if every device simultaneously hits the maximum of its power class, the protection kicks in. That doesn't mean every client gets cut off, though: the shutdown is controlled, based on the PoE priority configured for each port.
Port Protection
The XMG2230-28HP includes hardware protection against electrical interference and surge spikes. Every Ethernet port can withstand 2kV. Lightning-induced surges or industrial interference shouldn't damage the PHY chip - though on a long outdoor run, don't forget to install a surge arrestor at the entry point.
The power supply is rated to withstand high-voltage surges (2kV phase-to-ground / 1kV phase-to-phase) as well as electrostatic discharge from touching the chassis or ports (8kV phase-to-ground / 6kV phase-to-phase).
Stacking
The front panel features a 7-segment display for identifying a unit's number within a stack, along with a separate Primary LED that lets you instantly see whether the device is the stack master.
In October 2026, the switch is expected to receive firmware enabling stacking of up to 4 units. A corresponding Stacking option will appear in both the web interface and the CLI. As of this writing, the current firmware version (V2.00(ACNN.1) | 13.02.2026) doesn't yet include this option.
You'll be able to choose a configuration of 2 or 4 ports (on this model, the SFP+ 10G ports) to serve as stacking links - a case where the hardware's full capabilities get unlocked gradually through firmware updates.
Networked AV
To appreciate this feature's value, it helps to recall how AV over IP differs from regular office traffic. Normally a switch doesn't care what kind of traffic is passing through it. If something needs priority, like IP telephony, QoS handles it and that's enough.
But with AV over IP, even small delays can ruin real-time media streams. A stream usually isn't sent to each decoder individually - it goes to a specific multicast group that the relevant devices subscribe to. In theory this should work perfectly out-of-box for matrix AV systems, video walls, or distributed audio.
The problem is that the switch, on its own, can't reliably tell which ports are subscribed to which multicast stream. The traffic starts behaving like a broadcast, flooding the network. It only takes a couple "heavy" video streams to saturate ports, eat up uplink bandwidth, and turn decoders into stuttering generators of digital artifacts.
The way to avoid this is enabling IGMP snooping - a mechanism that lets the switch "eavesdrop" on passing IGMP packets to figure out who actually needs the multicast traffic and who doesn't. After that, the stream only gets forwarded to the ports that need it. Put simply, the switch starts making L2 decisions based on L3/L4 information - technically a violation of the OSI model, but an extremely useful one.
However, IGMP snooping doesn't operate in a vacuum on its own. Snooping tables can go stale, subscriptions can disappear, and the system can start behaving unpredictably. This is where fine-tuned QoS comes into play, prioritizing sync packets, audio streams, background traffic, and control frames. In mixed networks it's easy to end up in a situation where there's seemingly no congestion, yet the audio randomly starts "clicking".
Plug AVoIP devices into just any switch and you're guaranteed hours of entertaining troubleshooting. Purpose-built AV switches cost as much as an airplane wing and demand very specific configuration skills.
The Simplified
Configuration Mode
This is exactly where Networked AV mode comes to the rescue. Instead of a full menu with dozens of parameters, the engineer is offered a configuration wizard that implements a set of common scenarios and prepares the network for AV-over-IP protocols, without needing to dig through the CLI.
This is reminiscent of airline pilot checklists: step-by-step procedures that let you take off with confidence that every system is engaged and working properly. Networked AV works the same way - it only highlights the parameters that actually matter for AVoIP configuration. The wizard is essentially that same checklist, just in dialog form.
Of course, none of this removes the need to think about network topology, redundancy, and traffic routing. But for everyday AV-integrator scenarios, this configuration mode helps avoid the most common first-run mistakes and is far more approachable than the unforgiving CLI of dedicated AV hardware.
Under the Hood
As always in our reviews, we're not shy about showing what's inside the device. Removing the top cover takes about 5 minutes and 12 Philips screws. Inside, we find not one board but several neatly laid-out PCBs, split across different zones.
Logic, PoE, and the power section each live in their own space. The power supply, which runs hot and is "noisy" in terms of interference, was placed as far as possible from the sensitive switching logic.
Inside View
The entire upper-left section is dedicated to the built-in RISUNIC R0242 power supply.
RISUNIC R0242 Power Supply
This is a fairly typical open-frame PCBA, honestly delivering roughly 780W, of which 700W goes to the PoE budget while the rest is consumed by the switch itself and conversion losses.
Capacitors & Transformers
Nothing exotic here - a well-built, densely packed PSU with Ltec 330mF 450V, 105°C capacitors. Nearby are the transformers and heatsinks on the switching transistors.
External DC Board
A separate board handles the external DC input, which lets you push the PoE budget up to 1440W. The star here is a Hongfa HF186F relay rated at 50A / 277VAC - likely part of the failover circuit that allows instant switching between power sources.
UMEC UT38B16S Transformer
It's accompanied by a shielded UMEC UT38B16S transformer, a common-mode choke, and various types of capacitors - the typical "gentleman's kit" needed to sustain a 60W-per-port load.
PoE Daughterboard
The most interesting part sits on the main board and on a "second floor" PoE section mounted on top of it.
Realtek RTL8239 PSE Controllers
Power distribution is handled by Realtek RTL8239 PSE controllers, each one serving its own group of ports. Right next to them are densely packed fields of B2100A Schottky protection diodes, current-sensing resistors, and isolation components.
Switching ASIC
The star of the show - the switching ASIC - isn't something you can just look at. It's hidden under a massive finned aluminium heatsink, mounted not on a soft thermal pad but on a thermal compound that essentially glues the die to the heatsink.
Since all the PoE circuitry is built around Realtek chips, there's almost certainly an SoC from the RTL931x family hiding underneath - a high-performance Layer 3 stacking controller with a built-in dual-core MIPS processor.
UART Header
One nice detail for anyone who likes to tinker: there's a populated UART header on the board, but it's no longer accessible without opening the case (unlike on the Zyxel XMG1915-18EP).
RTC Battery
There's also room on the board for an SMD "coin cell" for the RTC (Real-Time Clock), so the clock survives power loss and reboots just fine.
Conclusion
The capabilities of the Zyxel XMG2230-28HP mark it as a highly specialized tool built to solve a specific set of tasks at a reasonable cost. First and foremost, it's aimed at building high-speed wireless Wi-Fi 6/7 networks using existing gigabit copper infrastructure, upgrading access speed to 2.5 Gbps per port.
This network device can deliver PoE power to even the most power-hungry devices, including the ability to double the PoE budget without having to replace the switch.
Finally, the XMG2230-28HP is set to become an indispensable tool for AV integrators, cutting down deployment time on-site and eliminating common configuration mistakes. Clients will be happy that the conference room always has perfect audio and video right on time. And engineers will be happy they didn't have to spend their weekend on-site fighting a falling-apart video feed.
High speed and reliability demand careful selection and testing of every component used - from the switching chips down to the simplest resistor. Bringing them all together, Zyxel builds devices capable of running for hundreds of thousands of hours without failure.
* All specifications are subject to change without notice.