At a glance
Product	Linksys 52-Port Managed PoE+ Gigabit Switch (LGS552P)   [Website]
Summary	52-port GbE Smart Switch with PoE and simple Layer 3 functions
Pros	• 375 W total PoE power • Simple configuration • Basic Layer 3 features • Relatively inexpensive
Cons	• Admin browser interface is slow • Can't configure port groups • Port-based VLANs are not supported (doc. error)

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Introduction

Since the Belkin acquisition in 2013, Linksys has been developing new products targeted at small to medium size businesses. We recently reviewed their two small business routers, the LRT214 and LRT224.

Linksys also produces three different lines of switches: unmanaged; "smart", and managed. Linksys' unmanaged switches have 5-24 Gigabit ports, some of which support Power over Ethernet (PoE.) Linksys' smart switches have 8-26 Gigabit ports, some of which support PoE.

The "smart" switches have configuration options including VLANs, Link Aggregation Groups (LAGs), Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and other Layer 2 switching features. Finally, the managed switches have 28-52 Gigabit ports, some of which support PoE. Configuration options include Layer 3 routing features, plus basic and advanced Layer 2 switching features.

This review focuses on Linksys' LGS552P managed switch. The LGS552P has 52 Gigabit ports, 48 of which support PoE, plus two Gigabit Copper/SFP (Small Form-Factor Pluggable) combo ports, plus two 10Gb SFP+ uplink ports. The LGS552P can route traffic between VLANs and between other Layer 3 devices. The LGS552P also includes the Layer 2 configuration options found in their smart switches.

Linksys' other managed switches in this family include the LGS552, non-PoE version of the LGS552P and LGS528 / LGS528P, which are 28 port switches with the same feature set, minus the 10Gb uplink ports.

Features

The below list is compiled from Linksys' LGS552P specifications page and product data sheet.

Inside

The LGS552P can be rack mounted (rack mount hardware included) or placed flat on a surface (adhesive pads included.) However, with 52 ports and 3 cooling fans, it's too big (17.3"W x 13.8"D x 1.75"H) and loud to be a desktop switch.

The front of the device has the Ethernet ports and LEDs.

Front

The rear of the device has the AC power connector.

Rear

The components of the LGS552P include 128 MB RAM, 16 MB Flash, and a Marvell 98Dx3036 chipset with an embedded CPU. The internal photo below shows the LGS552P has two circuit boards in the bottom half of the image, as well as its power components in the top left of the image. The LGS552P I received is a reviewer's model, which I hope explains the masking tape over several components in the bottom right of the image.

Linksys LGS552P Main Board

Introduction, Features, Inside Configuration, PoE, Layer 3 VLAN, STP, LAG Security, QoS, Closing

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