System and method for enabling functionality based on measured power

• US 20080250261A1
• Filed: 04/05/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Aruba Networks Incorporated (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Nguyen, Thien T., Gopalan, Giridhara
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,698 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus comprises an input port, a measuring circuit and a processor. The measuring circuit is adapted to measure a power parameter associated with power supplied over a communication media to the input port. The processor includes a plurality of logic units. Each logic unit is configured to be activated in series to control power usage of the apparatus.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

measuring a level of supply voltage provided to a powered device by a remote source; and

automatically altering functionality of the powered device by

determining if the supply voltage is greater than a voltage needed to power a first logic unit,

activating the first logic unit if the supply voltage is greater than the voltage needed to power the first logic unit,

determining if the supply voltage is greater than a voltage needed to power at least the first logic unit and a second logic unit, and

refraining from activating the second logic unit if the supply voltage is less than the voltage needed to power at least the first logic unit and the second logic unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote source is power supply equipment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the power supply equipment is a network switch and the powered device is an access point.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring of the level of supply voltage includes measuring a voltage level of the input voltage for power supplied by the remote source.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to determining if the supply voltage is greater than the voltage needed to power at least both the first logic unit and the second logic unit, the method comprises measuring a voltage supplied to the powered device in order to compute a resistance of an interconnect coupling the powered device and the remote source, the resistance between computed to determine if any other logic units may be powered.

6. An apparatus comprising:

an input port;

a measuring circuit to measure a power parameter associated with power supplied over a communication media to the input port; and

a processor including a plurality of logic units, each logic unit being activated in series if the power supplied over the input port exceeds an amount of power needed to power the activated logic units of the plurality of logic units.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the apparatus is a powered device receiving the power from a power supply equipment in accordance with any standard supporting the delivery of power over the communication media.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 being an access point receiving the power from a network switch.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the measuring circuit comprises a plurality of voltage detectors, a first voltage detector being responsible for signaling whether a measured voltage for the power supplied over the input port exceeds a first threshold voltage to cause activation of a first logic unit of the plurality of logic units and a second voltage detector being responsible for signaling whether the measured voltage for the power supplied over the input port exceeds a second threshold voltage to cause activation of a second logic unit of the plurality of logic units.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the measuring circuit performs real-time measurements of the power parameter to cause one or more of the logic units to be activated based on the real-time measurements of the power parameter.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the power parameter is a voltage measurement.

12. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the logic units operates to support a different function supported by the processor.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the first logic unit controls circuitry controlling a first radio frequency (RF) circuit and the second logic unit controls circuitry to control a second radio frequency (RF) circuit.

14. A system comprising:

a communication media;

a power supply equipment coupled to a first end of the communication media; and

a powered device including a port coupled to a second end of the communication media, the powered device including

a measuring circuit to measure a parameter associated with power supplied over the communication media from the power supply equipment, and

a processor including a plurality of logic units, each logic unit being activated sequentially if the power supplied exceeds an amount of power needed to activate that logic unit and previously activated logic units.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the power supply equipment is a network switch.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the powered device is an access point.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the parameter is a measured voltage.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the measuring circuit of the powered device comprises a plurality of voltage detectors corresponding to each of the plurality of logic units, each voltage detector being responsible to signal if the measured voltage for the power supplied by the power supply equipment exceeds a threshold voltage in order to activate the corresponding logic unit.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein each of the logic units controls a different function performed by the powered device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first logic unit controls circuitry controlling a first radio frequency (RF) circuit and the second logic unit controls circuitry to control a second radio frequency (RF) circuit.