A coordinator physically tied to the Home Assistant host limits placement and couples the radio layer to one compute location.
Home Assistantbuilding
Moving Zigbee coordination onto the network
Rolling out a PoE-connected Zigbee coordinator to improve placement, resilience and the separation between radio coverage and compute.
Use an SMLight PoE coordinator in a considered location, migrate devices gradually and watch routing, availability and recovery rather than assuming a new radio solves every mesh problem.
Rollout is in progress. The intended improvement is better placement and a cleaner boundary between the Zigbee radio and Home Assistant compute, subject to migration evidence.
Abstract architecture / sensitive detail removed
01 Zigbee devices
02 PoE coordinator
03 Trusted transport
04 Home Assistant
Current note
PoE makes placement independent of USB reach and keeps power and transport manageable, but the migration is being treated as a radio change rather than a simple device swap. Availability and routing behaviour will decide whether it is actually better.
Notes to future me
What this project is teaching me.
- Coordinator placement and mesh routing are different problems.
- Migrations need an availability baseline before devices move.
This page explains design intent and lessons without publishing credentials, private addressing, access paths, device identifiers or a complete security topology.