Apparatus and Method for Multi-Point Detection in Power-Over-Ethernet Detection Mode

• US 20100257381A1
• Filed: 04/05/2010
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chin, David, Woo, Agnes, Perzow, John, Fujimori, Ichiro, Tammineedi, Anil
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,442 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/44 Arrangements for feeding power to a repeater along the transmission line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40045 Details regarding the feeding of energy to the node from the bus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/02 Details ; arrangements for supplying electrical power along data transmission lines systems for transmitting signals via power distribution lines H04B3/54
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 370/91 Carrier sense multiple access, e.g. ethernet, 10base-t

Abstract

An apparatus and method for multi-point detection in a power source equipment (PSE) device is provided. During multi-point detection, a series of at least four currents is sequentially applied to a link port of the PSE device. Each current is applied during a different measurement interval. A voltage measurement sample is obtained for each of the measurement intervals. A difference in voltage between alternating voltage samples is determined and used by a detection module to determine whether a valid power device is coupled to the link port of the PSE.

Claims

1. A method, in a power-over-Ethernet power source equipment (PSE) device, for multi-point detection of a power device (PD), comprising:

(a) sequentially applying a series of at least four currents to a link port of the PSE device, wherein each of the at least four currents is applied during a different measurement time interval;

(b) for each of the measurement time intervals, obtaining at least one voltage measurement sample for the link port;

(c) determining a set of voltage differences, wherein each voltage difference is the difference between two of the voltage measurement samples; and

(d) determining, based on the voltage difference between voltage measurement samples, whether a valid PD is coupled to the link port of the PSE.