Managing power allocation to ethernet ports in the absence of mutually exclusive detection and powering cycles in hardware
First Claim
1. A method of allocating power among one or more ports in a switch, comprising:
- assigning a configuration power to a selected port, wherein the assigned configuration power is less than a power supplied by the selected port to a powered device;
enabling and powering the selected port;
receiving information via the enabled and powered selected port that identifies a power limit of a device coupled to the selected port;
comparing a power supplied by the selected port to the device with the configuration power assigned to the selected port; and
if the power supplied by the selected port to the device is greater than the configuration power assigned to the selected port, then increasing the configuration power of the selected port to correspond with the power limit of the device.
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Abstract
A method of allocating power to ports in an Ethernet switch, including: (1) assigning a configuration power to a selected port, wherein the assigned configuration power is less than a power supplied by the selected port to a powered, (2) enabling and powering the selected port in a single indivisible step, (3) determining the power limit of a device coupled to the selected port, (4) comparing the power supplied by the selected port to the device with the configuration power assigned to the selected port, and (5) if the power supplied by the selected port to the device is greater than the configuration power assigned to the selected port, then increasing the configuration power of the selected port to correspond with the power limit of the device.
77 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method of allocating power among one or more ports in a switch, comprising:
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assigning a configuration power to a selected port, wherein the assigned configuration power is less than a power supplied by the selected port to a powered device; enabling and powering the selected port; receiving information via the enabled and powered selected port that identifies a power limit of a device coupled to the selected port; comparing a power supplied by the selected port to the device with the configuration power assigned to the selected port; and if the power supplied by the selected port to the device is greater than the configuration power assigned to the selected port, then increasing the configuration power of the selected port to correspond with the power limit of the device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A switch comprising:
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a plurality of ports for data communication, wherein each port is capable of supplying power to a powered device coupled to the port; a processor configured to pre-allocate a configuration power to each of the ports, wherein the pre-allocated configuration power of each port is less than the power supplied to a powered device coupled to the port; and port control circuitry configured to simultaneously enable and power a selected port, determine a power limit of a device to be connected to the selected port, compare the power limit information received via the selected port with the configuration power assigned to the selected port, and increase the configuration power of the selected port to correspond with the power limit if the power limit is greater than the configuration power assigned to the selected port. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of supplying power from a network device via a port of the network device, the port also being capable of sending and receiving data, the method comprising:
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pre-allocating a configuration power to be supplied by the port, wherein the configuration power is an amount selected to trigger an overload condition on the port in the event a powered device is coupled to the port; enabling and powering the port; receiving information via the enabled and powered port that identifies a power limit of a device coupled to the selected port; comparing power supplied by the port with the configuration power assigned to the port; and if the power supplied by the port is greater than the configuration power assigned to the port, then increasing the configuration power of the port to correspond with the power limit. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A switch comprising:
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a plurality of ports for data communication, wherein each port is capable of supplying power to a powered device coupled to the port; a processor; a machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for the processor, the instructions to; assign a configuration power to a selected port, the configuration power selected to trigger an overload condition on the port in the event a powered device is coupled to the port; enable and power the selected port; determine a power limit of a powered device coupled to the enabled and powered selected port; and increase the configuration power of the selected port to correspond with the power limit if the power supplied to the enabled and powered selected port is greater than the assigned configuration power.
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Specification