METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING POWER OVER COMMUNICATION CABLING

• US 20150126251A1
• Filed: 01/09/2015
• Published: 05/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommScope Technologies, LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Andrew LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ranson, Christopher Goodman, Hunter, Roger Allan Jr., Kummetz, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,203,628 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/562.1
• 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: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

A PoE powered device and method of operation are provided. The device includes a first port unit configured to negotiate receipt of a level of PoE power from a power sourcing equipment. The power is received on a first pair of taps on a first communication port. A detection unit is configured to detect a presence of a first optional circuit load and to detect a presence of a second optional power load. A control circuit is configured to establish connectivity between a second pair of taps on the first communication port and a second powered device port unit in response to the detection unit detecting the first optional load, and further configured to establish connectivity between the second pair of taps and a third pair of taps on a pass-through communication port in response to the detection unit failing to detect the first load and detecting the second load.

Claims

1. A powered telecommunications device, comprising:

a combined powered device port unit configured to negotiate receipt of a level of power from power sourcing equipment, the power received on a first pair of taps, the port unit further configured for combining power received on multiple pairs of taps;

a detection unit configured to detect a presence of a first optional load and to detect a presence of a second optional load;

a control circuit configured to establish connectivity between a second pair of taps and the first optional load in response to the detection unit detecting the first optional load; and

the control circuit further configured to establish connectivity between the second pair of taps and a third pair of taps in response to the detection unit failing to detect the first optional load and detecting the second optional load.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the power from the power sourcing equipment is Power over Ethernet power.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the first, second and third pair of taps are Power over Ethernet taps.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the Power over Ethernet taps are associated with a powered device port.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein establishing connectivity between a second pair of taps and the first optional load includes establishing connectivity with the combined powered device port unit.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the third pair of taps are associated with a pass-through communication port.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the combined powered device port unit comprises:

a first powered device powered pair unit configured to negotiate a first level of power with power sourcing equipment;

a second powered device powered pair unit configured to negotiate a second level of power with power sourcing equipment;

a first intermediate power module configured to convert the negotiated first level of power to an intermediate voltage;

a second intermediate power module configured to convert the negotiated second level of power to the intermediate voltage;

a power combining module configured to combine power at the intermediate voltage received from the first intermediate power module and received from the second intermediate power; and

a power conversion and distribution module configured to convert power at the intermediate voltage level received from the power combining module to a source voltage prior to distributing to a load.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the combined powered device port unit comprises:

a first powered device powered pair unit configured to negotiate a first level of power with power sourcing equipment,

a second powered device powered pair unit configured to negotiate a second level of power with the power sourcing equipment;

a power combining module configured to combine power received from the first powered device powered pair unit and received from the second powered device powered pair unit;

an intermediate power module configured to convert combined power received from the power combining module to an intermediate voltage; and

a power conversion and distribution module configured to convert power at the intermediate voltage level received from the intermediate power module to a source voltage prior to distributing to a load.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the powered device is configured as a distributed antenna system remote antenna unit.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the first optional load is a remote antenna unit RF signal processing board.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the second optional load is selected from a group consisting of:

a standard access point, a WiFi access point, a WiMax access point, a maintenance terminal, IP camera, and combinations thereof.

12. A method of distributing power in a powered telecommunications device, the method comprising:

establishing connectivity between a first pair of taps and a power combining circuit;

performing a detection process to detect a presence of a first optional load;

performing a detection process to detect a presence of a second optional load;

in response to detecting the first optional load, establishing connectivity between a second pair of taps and the first optional load; and

in response to failing to detect the first optional load and detecting the second optional load, establishing connectivity between the second pair of taps and a third pair of taps.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first, second, and third pair of taps are Power over Ethernet taps.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein establishing connectivity between a second pair of taps and the first optional load includes establishing connectivity with the power combining circuit.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

negotiating a first level of power with a power sourcing equipment;

negotiating a second level of power with the power sourcing equipment;

converting the negotiated first level of power to an intermediate voltage;

converting the negotiated second level of power to an intermediate voltage level;

combining the converted power at the intermediate voltage level;

converting the combined power at the intermediate voltage levels to one of several voltage levels; and

distributing the combined converted power at one of the several voltage levels to a load.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the power from the power sourcing equipment is Power over Ethernet power.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein distributing the combined converted power comprises:

distributing the combined converted power at a selected voltage to at least one of a base load, the first optional load, and the second optional load.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the device is a remote antenna unit in a distributed antenna system.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

configuring the device to communicate with and to provide power to an RF signal processing board as the first optional circuit load.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

configuring the remote antenna unit to communicate with and to supply power to a second optional load selected from a group consisting of;

a standard access point, a WiFi access point, a WiMax access point, a maintenance terminal, IP camera, and combinations thereof.