Dynamic Power Management

• US 20160363980A1
• Filed: 06/10/2015
• Published: 12/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Spiel, Seth Brandon, Teachworth, Morgan Davis, Snyder, Ian Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 9,900,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes: obtaining a power loss value for a cable that couples a device to a power source, where the power loss value is indicative of an amount of power lost through the cable during power transmission from the power source to the device; and determining, based at least in part on the power loss value for the cable, a power budget value indicative of an amount of power received by the device from the power source.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a power loss value for a cable that couples a device to a power source, wherein the power loss value is indicative of an amount of power lost through the cable during power transmission from the power source to the device; and

determining, based at least in part on the power loss value for the cable, a power budget value indicative of an amount of power received by the device from the power source.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the power budget value includes adjusting a first power budget value, based at least in part on the power loss value, to a second power budget value.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a signal from the power source indicative of a power standard of the device; and

determining the first power budget value based at least in part on the power standard.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a signal from the power source indicative of the first power budget value.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

obtaining from memory the first power budget value.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

obtaining from memory a power standard of the device; and

determining the first power budget value based at least in part on the power standard.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cable is at least one of an Ethernet cable, a Universal Serial Bus cable, and a FIREWIRE cable.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the power loss value comprises:

determining one or more characteristics of the cable by performing a diagnostic test on the cable; and

wherein the power loss value for the cable is a function of the one or more characteristics of the cable.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each of the one or more characteristics are one of:

a length of the cable;

a resistance of the cable;

an insertion loss value of the cable; and

a return loss value of the cable.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the power loss value for the cable comprises receiving a signal from the power source indicative of the power loss value for the cable.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a first set of currently operating power consuming functions of the device;

determining, based at least in part on the first set of power consuming functions, a cumulative power consumption value indicative of an amount of power utilized by the first set of power consuming functions of the device;

selecting, based at least in part on the power budget value and the cumulative power consumption value, a second set of power consuming functions; and

effecting the second set of power consuming functions, including at least one of;

enabling a new power consuming function not included in the first set of power consuming functions, disabling a respective one of the first set of power consuming functions, increasing a power allocation for a respective power consuming function of the first set of power consuming functions, or decreasing power allocation for a respective power consuming function of the first set of power consuming functions.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a total power consumption value indicative of an amount of power consumed by the device;

selecting, based at least in part on the power budget value and the total power consumption value, one or more power consuming functions of the device; and

at least one of enabling and disabling the one or more selected power consuming functions of the device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein selecting the one or more power consuming functions comprises:

determining a power consumption value for each of a plurality of power consuming functions;

ranking the plurality of power consuming functions; and

selecting, based on the ranking, the one or more power consuming functions, wherein the sum of the power consumption values of the one or more power consuming functions is less than a difference between the power budget value and the total power consumption.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein ranking the plurality of power consuming functions is based on data received over a network.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein ranking the plurality of power consuming functions is based on the satisfaction of a user experience metric.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein ranking the plurality of power consuming functions is based on at least one of the determined power consumption values.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the sum of the power consumption values of the one or more power consuming functions is less than the difference between the power budget value and the total power consumption, reduced by a power safety margin.

18. The method claim 12, further comprising:

determining an updated total power consumption value indicative of an amount of power consumed by the device based on at least one of enabling and disabling the one or more selected power consuming functions of the device;

selecting, based at least in part on the power budget value and the updated total power consumption value, one or more power consuming functions of the device;

disabling the one or more selected power consuming functions in response to determining that the updated total power consumption value is greater than the power budget value; and

enabling the one or more selected power consuming functions in response to determining that the updated total power consumption value is less than the power budget value.

19. A device comprising:

a port configured to receive power from a power source;

a power sensor configured to obtain a power loss value for a cable that couples the device with the power source, wherein the power loss value is indicative of an amount of power lost through the cable during power transmission from the power source to the device; and

a controller configured to determine, based at least in part on the power loss value for the cable, a power budget value indicative of an amount of power received by the device from the power source.

20. A device comprising:

a port configured to receive power from a power source;

means for obtaining a power loss value for a cable that couples the device with the power source, wherein the power loss value is indicative of an amount of power lost through the cable during power transmission from the power source to the device; and

means for determining, based at least in part on the power loss value for the cable, a power budget value indicative of an amount of power received by the device from the power source.