Power over ethernet management devices and connection between ethernet devices

• US 7,873,057 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2006
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accedian Networks Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Accedian Networks Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Robitaille, Claude, Bastien, Dominique, Rochon, Steve, Cote, Nicolas, Ostiguy, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan; Man
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhao; Wei
• Application Number:
  US11/411,596
• Publication Number:
  US 20060239183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,729 Days
• Field of Search: 370/463, 370/445, 370/401, 709/220, 709/223, 709/229
• US Class Current: 370/401
• 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: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/50 Circuit switching systems, i.e. systems in which the path is physically permanent during the communication
• 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

Abstract

In one embodiment, a connection is maintained between a pair of ethernet ports that have circuitry connected in series with the ports and receiving power-over-ethernet (PoE) from one of the ports, by providing a controllable bypass circuit coupled to the pair of ethernet ports in parallel with the circuitry receiving power-over-ethernet, sensing a preselected condition, and opening and closing the bypass circuit in response to the presence or absence of the preselected condition. Power sourcing equipment (PSE) may supply the one of the ports with power over ethernet, and the circuitry may transports data between the pair of ethernet ports. The circuitry may also supply the switch with a control signal in response to the detection of the preselected condition.

Claims

1. A pair of Ethernet devices coupled to each other through at least one repeater and communicating with each other using an administrative protocol that defines messages used to exchange information or commands, said repeater including a controller programmed to communicate with at least one of said Ethernet devices using said administrative protocol, wherein said administrative protocol is an Operation administration and Maintenance (OAM) protocol, modified to allow MAC-level addressing between an Ethernet device and a repeater, to carry OAM information.

2. The pair of ethernet devices of claim 1 wherein said administrative protocol includes a MAC address for said repeater.

3. The pair of ethernet devices of claim 1 wherein at least one of said ethernet devices includes a controller programmed to discover multiple repeaters in sequence.

4. An ethernet comprising

a physical ethernet segment shared by at least two protected private networks coupled to a carrier network, comprising

a first special client coupled to the interface between said ethernet segment and one of said protected private networks,

a second special client coupled to the interface between said ethernet segment and the other of said protected private networks, and

a network resolver between said ethernet segment and said carrier network,

each of said special clients and said resolver having a unique MAC address and being programmed to find the MAC address corresponding to an IP address, each of said special clients being programmed to send an ARP request to said network resolver using a unicast destination address, and said network resolver being programmed to respond to said request using a unicast ARP reply.

5. The ethernet of claim 4 wherein said network resolver is programmed to block and intercept multicast and broadcast IP traffic on any of its ports.

6. The ethernet of claim 5 wherein said network resolver includes an address resolution table of MAC addresses corresponding to IP addresses, and said special clients are programmed to send said network resolver a dummy ARP request upon power up or reset, to allow said network resolver to populate said address resolution table.