IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) is a standard that allows physical layer transmitters to consume less power during periods of low data activity.
EEE combines the MAC layer with a family of physical layers that support operation in a low power mode. Lower power mode enables both the transmit and receive sides of a link to disable some functionality for power savings when lightly loaded. Transition to low power mode does not change the link status. Frames in transit are not dropped or corrupted in transition to and from a port in low power mode. Transition time is transparent to upper layer protocols and applications.
Whether EEE is enabled by default depends on the type of switch:
- Unmanaged switches: EEE is always enabled on NETGEAR unmanaged switches that support EEE.
- Managed switches: EEE is disabled by default on NETGEAR Easy Smart Managed Switches, Smart Switches, and fully managed switches that support EEE.
Easy Smart Managed Switches used to be called Web Managed Plus Switches, and before that, ProSAFE Managed Plus Switches.
Depending on your model switch, you can enable or disable EEE using the web-based device user interface (UI) or CLI commands. For more information, see the support page for your switch model.