CN113810202B

CN113810202B - Method and apparatus for managing power supply, power supply device, and computer readable medium

Info

Publication number: CN113810202B
Application number: CN202010556475.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卢清; 要长鑫; 付世勇
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-17
Filing date: 2020-06-17
Publication date: 2022-12-13
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-17
Also published as: CN113810202A; WO2021254351A1

Abstract

The invention provides a method, a device, a power supply device and a computer readable medium for managing power supply. In a method for managing power supply, a power supply apparatus receives power supply information of a powered apparatus from the powered apparatus via a data port, which is paired with the power supply port and is a physical port separated from each other. Then, the power supply apparatus supplies power to the powered apparatus via the power supply port and based on the power supply information of the powered apparatus. This may improve the power performance of a power supply device having physically separate data and power ports.

Description

Method and apparatus for managing power supply, power supply device, and computer readable medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to power supply technology, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for managing power supply, a power supply device, and a computer readable medium.

Background

Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology is a technology for powering a powered device over twisted pair lines of Ethernet. The power over ethernet technology can ensure the normal operation of the existing communication network while ensuring the safety of the structured cabling of the ethernet. Other advantages of power over ethernet technology include: simple and space-saving, the powered device can be moved at will, and the cost is reduced to the utmost extent. The complete Power over ethernet system may include two parts, power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) and Powered Device (PD). The power supply equipment is equipment for supplying power to the Ethernet client and is also a manager of the whole Ethernet power supply process. An example of a power sourcing equipment is a switch that supports power over ethernet capability, referred to as a power over ethernet switch for short. The powered device is a load that receives power supply from the power supply device, that is, a client device of the power over ethernet system, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) phone, an internet video monitoring device, an access control device, a building management device, a cloud terminal device, a wireless lan device, various entertainment devices, and the like. Power sourcing equipment that supports power over ethernet allows power sourcing power to be coupled with data signals for transmission over twisted pair cables to powered devices on the opposite end.

However, in some scenarios, a conventional power over ethernet device may not be able to provide power well to a powered device, thereby affecting the performance and user experience of the power over ethernet system.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure relates to a technical solution for managing power supply, and particularly provides a method and apparatus for managing power supply, a power supply device, and a computer readable medium.

In a first aspect of the disclosure, a method for managing power supply is provided. The method comprises the following steps: the power sourcing equipment receives power sourcing information for the powered device from the powered device via a data port, the data port being paired with the power sourcing port and being separate physical ports from each other. The method further comprises the following steps: the power supply apparatus supplies power to the powered apparatus via the power supply port and based on the power supply information. By this method, in the case where the data port is separated from the power supply port, the performance of the power supply apparatus to supply power to the powered apparatus can be improved.

In some implementations, the data port of the power sourcing equipment is connected to the powered device through an optical fiber in the optical electrical composite cable, and the power port of the power sourcing equipment is connected to the powered device through a power supply line in the optical electrical composite cable. In this way, high-rate data transmission can be achieved between the power supply apparatus and the powered apparatus while achieving long-distance power transmission.

In some implementations, the method further includes: the power supply device stores configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port. As such, the power supply apparatus can conveniently and efficiently manage the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port.

In some implementations, the method further includes: in response to the powered device being connected to the power port, the power sourcing device looks up a data port paired with the power port in the configuration information. In this way, the power supply apparatus can timely determine the data port corresponding to the power supply port to which the power receiving apparatus is connected, so as to obtain the power supply information of the power receiving apparatus from the data port.

In some implementations, the configuration information is user editable. Therefore, the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port of the power supply device can be determined by a user according to specific application environments and scenes, and the use flexibility of the power supply device can be improved.

In some implementations, the power supply information includes at least one of: an indication to adjust the power supply power of the power supply port, and a power supply priority of the powered device. Therefore, the power supply equipment can adjust the power supply power of the power supply port according to the request of the powered equipment, and can provide corresponding power supply guarantee for the powered equipment according to the power supply priority of the powered equipment, so that the power consumption requirement of the powered equipment is better met.

In some implementations, the method further includes: the power supply apparatus transmits capability information of the power supply port to the power receiving apparatus via the data port. In this way, the power receiving apparatus can request appropriate power supply power from the power supply apparatus according to the power supply capability of the power supply port, thereby facilitating efficient negotiation of reasonable power supply power by the power supply apparatus and the power receiving apparatus.

In some implementations, the method further includes: the power supply apparatus detects that the power receiving apparatus is connected to the power supply port. Accordingly, the power sourcing equipment can timely discover that the powered device is connected to the power sourcing port, and accordingly provide power to the powered device and manage power supply to the powered device via the paired data port.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a power supply apparatus is provided. The power supply apparatus includes: a power port, a data port, a processor, and a memory. The data port is paired with the power port and are separate physical ports from each other. The memory stores computer program instructions. The memory and the computer program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the power sourcing equipment to receive power sourcing information for the powered device from the powered device via the data port. The memory and the computer program instructions are further configured to, with the processor, cause the power sourcing equipment to source power to the powered device via the power sourcing port and based on the power sourcing information. The performance of the power supply apparatus of the present disclosure to supply power to a powered apparatus with a data port separated from a power supply port can be improved compared to a conventional power supply apparatus.

In some implementations, the memory is further configured to store configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power port and the data port. As such, the power supply apparatus can conveniently and efficiently manage the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port.

In some implementations, the memory and the computer program instructions are further configured to, with the processor, cause the power sourcing equipment to, in response to the powered device being connected to the power sourcing port, look up a data port paired with the power sourcing port in the configuration information. In this way, the power supply apparatus can timely determine the data port corresponding to the power supply port to which the power receiving apparatus is connected, so as to obtain the power supply information of the power receiving apparatus from the data port.

In some implementations, the configuration information is user editable. Therefore, the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port of the power supply equipment can be determined by a user according to a specific application environment and a specific scene, so that the use flexibility of the power supply equipment can be improved.

In some implementations, the memory and the computer program instructions are further configured to, with the processor, cause the power sourcing equipment to transmit capability information of the power sourcing port to the powered device via the data port. In this way, the power receiving apparatus can request appropriate power supply power from the power supply apparatus according to the power supply capability of the power supply port, thereby facilitating efficient negotiation of reasonable power supply power by the power supply apparatus and the power receiving apparatus.

In some implementations, the power supply apparatus further includes: a detection circuit for detecting that the powered device is connected to the power supply port. Thus, the power sourcing equipment can timely discover that the powered device is connected to the power sourcing port, and accordingly provide power to the powered device and manage the power to the powered device via the paired data port.

In a third aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus for managing power supply is provided. The device includes: means for receiving power supply information of the powered device from the powered device via a data port, the data port being paired with the power supply port and being separate physical ports from each other. The apparatus also includes means for providing power to the powered device via the power port and based on the power information. By this means, in the case where the data port is separated from the power supply port, the performance of the power supply apparatus to supply power to the powered apparatus can be improved.

In some implementations, the apparatus further includes: means for storing configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power port and the data port. As such, the power supply apparatus can conveniently and efficiently manage the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port.

In some implementations, the apparatus further includes: means for looking up a data port paired with the power port in the configuration information in response to the powered device being connected to the power port. In this way, the power supply apparatus can timely determine the data port corresponding to the power supply port to which the power receiving apparatus is connected, so as to obtain the power supply information of the power receiving apparatus from the data port.

In some implementations, the apparatus further includes: means for transmitting capability information of the power supply port to the powered device via the data port. In this way, the powered device can request appropriate power supply power from the power supply device according to the power supply capability of the power supply port, thereby facilitating the power supply device and the powered device to efficiently negotiate out reasonable power supply power.

In some implementations, the apparatus further includes: means for detecting that a powered device is connected to a power port. Accordingly, the power sourcing equipment can timely discover that the powered device is connected to the power sourcing port, and accordingly provide power to the powered device and manage power supply to the powered device via the paired data port.

In a fourth aspect of the disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided. The computer readable medium has stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to perform the method according to the first aspect. With the computer-readable medium, performance of the power supply apparatus to supply power to the powered apparatus can be improved in a case where the data port is separated from the power supply port.

It should be understood that what is described in this summary section is not intended to limit key or critical features of the disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will become readily apparent from the following detailed description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, several embodiments of the present disclosure are shown by way of example and not limitation.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an example system environment including a power sourcing equipment and a powered device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of an example opto-electric composite cable, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of another example opto-electric composite cable, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates example configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between a power port and a data port, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method for managing power supply according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication procedure for a power sourcing device to negotiate power sourcing power with a powered device in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 6B illustrates a schematic diagram of another example communication procedure for a power sourcing device negotiating power sourcing power with a powered device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication procedure for a power sourcing device to negotiate a power sourcing priority with a powered device in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an example operational procedure for a power supply device when a pairing relationship between a power port and a data port is configurable, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Fig. 9 shows a block diagram of a power supply device with an example port arrangement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 shows a block diagram of a power supply device with another example port arrangement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 shows a block diagram of an example apparatus for managing power supply in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 12 shows a schematic diagram of an example computer-readable medium, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals are used to designate the same or similar components.

Detailed Description

As used herein, the terms "comprises," comprising, "and the like are to be construed as open-ended inclusions, i.e.," including, but not limited to. The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like may refer to different or the same objects, and are used merely to distinguish the referenced objects, without implying any particular spatial order, temporal order, order of importance, or the like, between the referenced objects. Other explicit and implicit definitions are also possible below.

As used herein, the term "determining" encompasses a wide variety of actions. For example, "determining" can include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Further, "determining" can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), and the like. Further, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.

The term "circuitry" as used herein refers to one or more of the following: (a) Hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry); and (b) a combination of hardware circuitry and software, such as (if applicable): (i) A combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuitry and software/firmware, and (ii) any portion of a hardware processor and software (including a digital signal processor, software, and memory that work together to cause a device, such as a power supply or other electronic equipment, to perform various functions); and (c) hardware circuitry and/or a processor, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but may be software-free when software is not required for operation.

The definition of circuit applies to all usage scenarios of this term in this application, including any claims. As another example, the term "circuitry" as used herein also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors), or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor, or its accompanying software or firmware. For example, the term "circuitry" would also cover a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit, a power sourcing device, a powered device, or a similar integrated circuit in other devices, as appropriate for a particular claim element.

As mentioned above, in some scenarios, a conventional power over ethernet device may not be able to power the powered device well, thereby affecting the performance and user experience of the power over ethernet system. Specifically, a conventional power over ethernet device provides power to and communicates with a powered device via the same physical port. In other words, the physical port serves as both a power supply port of the power supply apparatus and a data port of the power supply apparatus. According to the standard of the power over ethernet technology, the power sourcing equipment may go through the processes of detection, voltage classification, power-on start, etc. in sequence from the identification of the powered device to the power supply to the powered device. After the powered device is powered up, the power sourcing device will enter a power sourcing power management state for the powered device. In order to implement dynamic power supply adjustment and management, a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) may be supported between the power supply device and the powered device, and power supply negotiation may be performed through a Media Dependent Interface (MDI).

However, in some power over ethernet devices, the data port and the power port may be separate physical ports. For example, some power over ethernet switches physically separate the data port and the power port into two ports for connection to powered devices via fiber and copper cables, respectively, and such power over ethernet switches may also be referred to as optoelectrical composite switches. When the power over ethernet switch is docked with a powered device, data transmission is performed with the powered device via the data port, and power transmission is performed to the powered device via the power port. In this case, the conventional power supply device can only complete the detection, classification and power-up of the powered device through current analysis on the power supply line. After the powered device powers up, the power sourcing device allocates a fixed power supply (e.g., a rated power) to the powered device for use without adjustment, which may result in other powered devices subsequently connected to the power sourcing device being unable to power up because the power sourcing device has no remaining power. Furthermore, in case of the data port being separated from the power supply port, according to the conventional power over ethernet protocol, the power supply device will not be able to obtain power supply information of the powered device from the powered device, and further cannot perform power supply power negotiation with the powered device through the link layer discovery protocol, and registration of power supply priority, etc. Therefore, the power supply apparatus cannot perform effective power supply management of the power receiving apparatus. Similar problems and drawbacks exist in power sourcing equipment other than power over ethernet equipment.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, as well as other potential problems, presented in conventional approaches, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for managing power. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a physically separated power supply port and data port of a power supply apparatus may be paired, so that a powered apparatus connected to the power supply port may provide power supply information of the powered apparatus to the power supply apparatus via the data port paired with the power supply port. Based on the power supply information of the powered device received on the data port, the power supply device may accordingly supply power to the powered device via the power supply port. In this way, the power supply apparatus can achieve reasonable and efficient power supply for the power receiving apparatus, so that the power supply performance of the power supply apparatus is improved. Several embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an example system environment 100 including a power sourcing equipment 110 and

powered devices

120 and 130, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As used herein, the power sourcing equipment 110 may be any equipment capable of providing power to a powered device. In some embodiments, the power sourcing equipment 110 may be a power sourcing equipment compliant with the power over ethernet protocol that may provide power to ethernet client devices (i.e., ethernet powered devices) and may also be an administrator of the overall power over ethernet process. For example, the power sourcing equipment 110 may be a switch that conforms to a power over ethernet protocol, such as an optical-electrical composite switch. In other embodiments, the power supply device 110 may also be a power supply device that complies with other power supply protocols now known or later developed, or may also be a non-standard power supply device. As shown in fig. 1, the power supply device 110 may have a plurality of data ports 112-1 to 112-N (which may be collectively referred to herein as data ports 112) and a plurality of power ports 114-1 to 114-N (which may be collectively referred to herein as power ports 114), where N is a natural number.

As used herein, the term "port" generally refers to a port provided on a device or apparatus for communicating or communicating with the outside, which may be connected to other devices or apparatuses, typically via a cable or connector. In this sense, "port" herein may have the same technical meaning as "interface" and may be used interchangeably. For example, the data port 112 of the power supply device 110 may be any form of port for transmitting data, and the power port 114 may be any form of port for providing power. In some embodiments, data ports 112 may include optical fiber ports based on optical signals, such as FC type fiber ports, SC type fiber ports, ST type fiber ports, LC type fiber ports, and the like. In other embodiments, the data port 112 may also be a data port based on electrical signals or other forms of signals. In some embodiments, the power port 114 may include a standard 8-bit modular interface, such as an interface for receiving an RJ45 connector, or the like. In other embodiments, power port 114 may also be a port that conforms to other power standards now known or later developed, or may also be a non-standard port.

As shown, the data port 112 and the power port 114 of the power supply device 110 may be separate physical ports from each other. For example, without loss of generality, data port 112-1 of data ports 112 and power port 114-1 of power ports 114 may be separate physical ports from each other. That is, the data port 112-1 and the power port 114-1 may be provided by two physical ports, respectively, rather than by the same physical port. In some embodiments, in addition to the physically separate data port 112 and power port 114, the power device 110 may also include one or more physical ports (not shown) that combine data port functionality and power port functionality. In other words, each of such one or more physical ports may function as both a data port and a power port. Thus, such data port and power port are common physical ports, i.e. provided by the same physical port.

In the example of fig. 1, the data port 112-1 of the power sourcing equipment 110 may be connected to the data port 122 of the powered device 120 by a cable 140, and the power sourcing port 114-1 may be connected to the powered port 124 of the powered device 120 by a cable 145, so that data transfer and power transfer may occur simultaneously between the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120. Similarly, data port 112-2 of power sourcing equipment 110 may be connected to data port 132 of powered device 130 by cable 150, and power port 114-2 may be connected to powered port 134 of powered device 130 by cable 155. As used herein,

powered devices

120 and 130 may be any device capable of receiving power from a power sourcing device. In some embodiments,

powered devices

120 and 130 may be powered devices that conform to the power over ethernet protocol, i.e., devices used to receive power in a power over ethernet system, which are loads that receive power, also referred to as client devices of the power over ethernet system. Examples of ethernet powered devices include, but are not limited to: a webcam, a wireless access point device, an internet phone device, an internet video monitoring device, an access control device, a building management device, a cloud terminal device, a wireless local area network device, a small home (SOHO) switch, a smart lighting device, a mobile phone charger, an entertainment device, and the like. In other embodiments,

powered devices

120 and 130 may also be powered devices that follow other power delivery protocols now known or later developed, or may also be non-standard powered devices. Further, similar to the power sourcing equipment 110, the data port 122 and the power receiving port 124 of the power sourcing equipment 120 may be separate physical ports, and the data port 132 and the power receiving port 134 of the power sourcing equipment 130 may also be separate physical ports.

In general,

cables

140 and 150 may be any cables suitable for data transmission, and

cables

145 and 155 may be any cables suitable for power transmission. In some embodiments,

cables

140 and 150 may be fiber optic cables for transmitting optical signals, while

cables

145 and 155 may be metal cables for transmitting electrical power. In other embodiments, powered device 120 may be connected to data port 112-1 by an optical fiber in an Optoelectronic Composite Cable (OCC) and to power port 114-1 by a power supply line in the optoelectronic composite cable. As used herein, an optoelectrical composite cable is a composite type cable that uses optical fibers for data transmission, can support high data rates (e.g., up to 100 gigabits per second (Gbps)), and uses power cables (e.g., copper cables) for power transmission, can support power transmission over long distances (e.g., 200 meters or more). Therefore, by connecting the power supply apparatus and the power receiving apparatus using the optical-electrical composite cable, high-rate data transmission and long-distance power transmission can be simultaneously achieved between the power supply apparatus and the power receiving apparatus. In some embodiments, the power supply wires in the optoelectrical composite cable may take the form of twisted pairs, or other electrical cables that may be used to transmit electrical power.

In the power over ethernet standard, the power over ethernet device can support 100 meters and 90 watts at the longest, and simultaneously support 10Gbps data transmission. However, as wireless lan devices as powered devices support a new generation of communication technologies, their access rate requirements have increased from 10Gbps to 25Gbps, thereby resulting in a severely limited wiring distance between lan switches supporting power over ethernet technology and access point devices. In this case, the use of the optical-electrical composite cable can well solve the inherent contradiction between the transmission distance and the transmission rate of the twisted pair data. It is to be noted that the photoelectric composite cable in the embodiment of the present disclosure should be broadly understood. For example, the opto-electrical composite cable may be a separate body of optical fiber and electrical cable, i.e. comprising a separate electrical cable and a separate optical fiber. For another example, the optical-electrical composite cable may be a cable assembly formed by combining an optical fiber and a cable. These two examples of the photoelectric composite cable in the embodiment of the present disclosure are described below with reference to fig. 2 and 3, respectively.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example opto-electric composite cable 200, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 2, the opto-electrical composite cable 200 includes separate optical fibers 215 and power supply wires 245. In the opto-electrical composite cable 200, the optical fiber 215 may include

optical fiber lines

210 and 220, which may be used for propagation of optical signals in two different directions, respectively. In other embodiments, the optical fiber 215 may also include only one optical fiber line for optical signal propagation in two different directions, for example, by way of frequency division multiplexing. As shown, the supply wire 245 may be a two-core supply wire, which may include a negative supply wire 240 and a positive supply wire 250, and may be surrounded by a sheath 270 for protection. In other embodiments, the power supply line 245 can also have any other suitable power supply line structure. It will be appreciated that the optical fiber 215 may also be protected by a jacket, but is not shown in fig. 2 for simplicity. In some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 2, powered device 120 can be connected to data port 112-1 of power sourcing equipment 110 via optical fiber 215 and fiber connector 230, and to power port 114-1 of power sourcing equipment 110 via power supply line 245 and power supply connector (also referred to as power connector) 260. For example only, the fiber optic connectors 230 may be fiber optic LC type connectors and the power supply connector 260 may be an RJ45 type connector. Of course, in other embodiments, the fiber optic connectors 230 may also be any other type of fiber optic connector and the power supply connector 260 may also be any other type of power supply connector.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of another example opto-electric composite cable 300, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 3, the opto-electric composite cable 300 includes an optical fiber 315 and a power supply wire 345 encased together by a jacket 370. Similar to the optical electrical composite cable 200, the optical fiber 315 of the optical electrical composite cable 300 may also include two

optical fiber lines

310 and 320, which may be used for optical signal propagation in two different directions, respectively. In other embodiments, optical fiber 315 may include only one optical fiber line for optical signal propagation in two different directions, e.g., by way of frequency division multiplexing. Further, similar to the optoelectric composite cable 200, the power supply line 345 of the optoelectric composite cable 300 may also be a two-core power supply line, which may include a negative line 340 and a positive line 350. In other embodiments, the power supply line 345 may have any other suitable power supply line structure. In some embodiments, referring to fig. 1 and 3, powered device 120 may be connected to data port 112-1 of power sourcing equipment 110 via optical fiber 315 and fiber connector 330, and to power port 114-1 of power sourcing equipment 110 via power supply line 345 and power connector 360. For example only, the fiber optic connector 330 may be a fiber optic LC type connector and the power supply connector 360 may be an RJ45 type connector. Of course, in other embodiments, the fiber optic connector 330 may be any other type of fiber optic connector and the power supply connector 360 may be any other type of power supply connector.

Referring back to fig. 1, in some embodiments, since the power sourcing equipment 110 has multiple data ports 112 and multiple power sourcing ports 114, in order to provide power to and communicate with one or more powered devices, each data port 112 and each power sourcing port 114 may have a paired relationship therebetween to mate to connect to one or more powered devices. As used herein, "pairing" between a power port and a data port means that the power port and the data port can cooperate to connect to the same powered device. For example, information or data (e.g., power parameters) associated with a power port may be transmitted through a data port paired with the power port. In the example of FIG. 1, assuming that data port 112-1 and power port 114-1 are paired, information or data (e.g., power parameters) related to power port 114-1 may be transmitted through data port 112-1. Therefore, if a certain powered device is connected to the paired power supply port and data port of the power supply device 110, the powered device can transmit power supply information about the powered device to the power supply device 110 via the data port, or receive data or information about the power supply port from the power supply device 110. For example, in the example of fig. 1, assuming that data port 112-1 and power port 114-1 are paired, powered device 120 may exchange power information about power port 114-1 (or powered device 120) with power sourcing equipment 110 via data port 112-1.

Conversely, in some embodiments, if a certain powered device is connected to the unpaired power port and data port of the power sourcing equipment 110, the powered device may communicate with the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port, and may also accept preliminary power from the power sourcing equipment 110 via the power port. However, the power receiving apparatus cannot exchange power supply information about the power supply port (or the power receiving apparatus) with the power supply apparatus 110 via the data port. Since even if the power supply apparatus 110 receives such power supply information, the power supply apparatus 110 cannot determine which power supply port the power supply information is about because the data port is not paired with the power supply port. For example, in the example of fig. 1, assuming that data port 112-1 and power sourcing port 114-1 are not paired, powered device 120 may communicate with power sourcing equipment 110 via data port 112-1, but cannot exchange power sourcing information about power sourcing port 114-1 (or powered device 120) with power sourcing equipment 110 via data port 112-1. Specifically, the power supply apparatus 110 cannot determine for which power supply port the power supply information of the power receiving apparatus 120 received via the data port 112-1 is used, nor can it determine which power supply port the power supply information of which power supply port is supplied to the power receiving apparatus 120 via the data port 112-1. In some embodiments, the power supply device 110 may use the configuration information to manage the pairing relationship between the power port 114 and the data port 112. Such an embodiment is described below with reference to fig. 4.

Fig. 4 illustrates example configuration information 400 indicating a pairing relationship between power port 114 and data port 112, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, configuration information (also referred to as a configuration file) 400 may take the form of a table and may include a power port column 410 and a data port column 420. In the configuration information 400, the power supply ports and the data ports numbered in the same row are the paired power supply ports and data ports. For example, in the example of FIG. 4, powered port 114-1 is paired with data port 112-1, powered port 114-2 is paired with data port 112-2, powered port 114-3 is paired with data port 112-N, powered port 114-4 is not paired with a data port, \ 8230; \8230;, powered port 114-N-1 is paired with data port 112-8, and powered port 114-N is paired with data port 112-5, and so on. With the aid of the configuration information 400, the power supply apparatus 110 can conveniently determine the pairing relationship between the power supply port 114 and the data port 112 by querying an entry in the configuration information 400, find a data port paired with a certain power supply port, or find a power supply port paired with a certain data port, and so on. Therefore, by using the configuration information 400, the power supply apparatus 110 can conveniently and efficiently manage the pairing relationship between the power supply port 114 and the data port 112.

It should be understood that the table format depicted in fig. 4 for configuration information 400 is merely exemplary, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, the configuration information 400 may have any other suitable form as long as it can be used to record the pairing relationship between the power port 114 and the data port 112. In addition, it is also only exemplary that the configuration information 400 is organized in the order of the numbers of the power supply ports from small to large. In other embodiments, the configuration information 400 may also be organized by the number of the data ports, or by other orders of the power port numbers or data port numbers, and so on. In some embodiments, the configuration information 400 may be stored within the power supply device 110, such as in a memory of the power supply device 110, such that access to the configuration information 400 by the power supply device 110 may be expedited. Alternatively, the configuration information 400 may also be stored in an external storage device accessible to the power supply device 110, which may reduce the storage burden of the power supply device 110 and the cost of the power supply device 110.

In some embodiments, the configuration information 400 is user editable. In other words, the user of the power supply apparatus 110 may pair a certain power supply port of the power supply apparatus 110 with a certain data port by editing the content of the configuration information 400 according to the specific application environment and scenario of the power supply apparatus 110. Taking the powered device 120 in fig. 1 as an example, before or after the powered device 120 is connected to the data port 112-1 and the power supply port 114-1, the user of the power supply device 110 may edit the content of the configuration information 400 in the user interface of the power supply device 110, thereby manually setting the pairing relationship between the data port 112-1 and the power supply port 114-1. In this way, the user of the power supply device 110 can pair the data port 112 and the power supply port 114 arbitrarily, which greatly improves the flexibility of the power supply device 110.

In other embodiments, the configuration information 400 may also be set to be non-editable by the user. That is, there is a default fixed configuration relationship between the data port 112 and the power port 114 of the power supply apparatus 110. In this case, in an alternative embodiment, the power supply apparatus 110 may not manage the pairing relationship between the data port 112 and the power supply port 114 by the configuration information 400, because their pairing relationship is fixed. In some embodiments, the fixed pair of data port and power port may be readily identifiable, for example, in the example of fig. 1, the data port that is fixedly paired with the power port may be a data port that is located above the power port. Specifically, in the example of FIG. 1, data port 112-1 may have a fixed mating relationship with power port 114-1, data port 112-2 may have a fixed mating relationship with power port 114-2, \8230;, data port 112-N-1 may have a fixed mating relationship with power port 114-N-1, and data port 112-N may have a fixed mating relationship with power port 114-N. In the case of fixed pairing, when a user connects a powered device to the power port and the data port of the power supply device 110 using a cable, the user may need to connect according to the fixed pairing relationship between the power port 114 and the data port 112. For example, assuming data port 112-1 and power port 114-1 in FIG. 1 have a fixed pairing relationship, they may need to be connected to the same powered device, e.g., powered device 120.

It should be understood that fig. 1-4 only schematically illustrate devices, units, modules, components, or information related to embodiments of the present disclosure in an example system environment 100. In practice, the example system environment 100 may also include other devices, units, modules, components, or information for other functions. Moreover, the particular number of devices, units, modules, components, or information illustrated in fig. 1-4 is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, the example system environment 100 may include any suitable number of power sourcing devices, powered devices, power sourcing ports of power sourcing devices, data ports of power sourcing devices, or cables, among others. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the specific devices, units, modules, components, or information depicted in fig. 1-4, but are generally applicable to any technical environment in which a power sourcing device provides power to a powered device. A method for managing power supply of an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below with reference to fig. 5.

Fig. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method 500 for managing power supply, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the example method 500 may be implemented by the power supply device 110 in the example system environment 100, for example, may be implemented by a processor or processing unit of the power supply device 110. In other embodiments, the example method 500 may also be implemented by a power supply device that is independent of the example system environment 100. For ease of illustration and without loss of generality, the example method 500 will be discussed below with reference to fig. 1, with the power sourcing equipment 110 performing the example method 500 to manage power to the powered device 120 as an example.

At block 510, the power sourcing equipment 110 may receive power sourcing information 160 for the powered device 120 from the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. As described above, there is a pairing between the data port 112-1 and the power port 114-1 to which the powered device 120 is connected. That is, power sourcing equipment 110 may determine that data port 112-1 and power port 114-1 are in use and connected to the same powered device. Thus, the power sourcing equipment 110 may use the data port 112-1 to exchange information with the powered device 120 to manage the power supply of the power sourcing port 114-1. For example, the power sourcing equipment 110 may receive power sourcing information 160 for the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1 in order to manage power sourcing to the powered device 120, i.e., managing power sourcing on the power sourcing port 114-1.

It should be noted that, if there is a fixed pairing relationship between the data port 112-1 and the power supply port 114-1, after the powered device 120 is connected to the data port 112-1 and the power supply port 114-1, the power supply device 110 can receive the power supply information 160 from the powered device 120 and manage the power supply of the power supply port 114-1 according to the power supply information 160 without inquiring whether there is a pairing relationship between the data port 112-1 and the power supply port 114-1. However, if the pairing relationship between the data port 112 and the power port 114 of the power sourcing equipment 110 is configurable, the power sourcing equipment 110 may need to look up whether the pairing relationship exists between the data port 112-1 and the power port 114-1 in the configuration information 400 after the powered device 120 is connected to the data port 112-1 and the power port 114-1. If such a pairing relationship exists, the power supply apparatus 110 can manage the power supply of the power supply port 114-1 using the power supply information 160. Such an example will be described in detail later with reference to fig. 8.

In some embodiments, the power information 160 may include an indication to adjust the power supplied to the power port 114-1. That is, the powered device 120 may request the power sourcing equipment 110 to adjust the power sourcing power of the power sourcing port 114-1 in the power sourcing information 160. In general, the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 refers to the available power allocated to the power supply port 114-1 by the power supply device 110, i.e., the available maximum power allocated to the powered device 120. Although powered device 120 may not draw this available maximum power, power sourcing device 110 still needs to "reserve" this available maximum power to power sourcing port 114-1 and not be allocated to other power sourcing ports.

For example, assuming that the power sourcing device 110 allocates (or reserves) 30 watts of power supply power to the power supply port 114-1, the powered device 120 may consume power on demand within 30 watts of power. The power sourcing equipment 110 may stop supplying power to the powered device 120 if the powered device 120 uses more than 30 watts of power. However, in some cases, powered device 120 may indeed need to consume more power than the current power supply of power port 114-1. Accordingly, the powered device 120 may include a request to increase the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 in the power supply information 160. At the power sourcing equipment 110, if the power sourcing equipment 110 has available power sourcing power that has not yet been allocated, the power sourcing equipment 110 may increase the power sourcing power of the power sourcing port 114-1 in order to meet the higher power demand of the powered device 120. Conversely, if the power supply apparatus 110 has no remaining power supply to be allocated to the power supply port 114-1, the power supply apparatus 110 may not adjust the power supply of the power supply port 114-1.

In other cases, powered device 120 may find that the power that needs to be consumed will continue to be lower than the current power supply of power supply port 114-1. For example, the powered device 120 may be expected to be in a low power consumption state (e.g., sleep mode) for a period of time without the power sourcing equipment 110 distributing a large amount of power sourcing power to the power sourcing port 114-1. In such a case, the powered device 120 may include a request to reduce the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 in the power supply information 160. After receiving the request to reduce the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 from the powered device 120, the power supply device 110 may reduce the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1, thereby increasing the remaining available power supply of the power supply device 110 and reducing the total power consumption of the power supply device 110. Alternatively or additionally, the power sourcing equipment 110 may distribute the recovered power supply power to other power sourcing ports for powering other powered devices. This facilitates a flexible and rational adaptation of the supply power of the supply device 110.

In some embodiments, the power supply information 160 may include a power supply priority of the powered device 120, such that the power supply device 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 according to the power supply priority of the powered device 120. For example, the power sourcing equipment 110 may provide corresponding power sourcing guarantees to the powered device 120 in accordance with the power sourcing priority of the powered device 120. Specifically, in the example of fig. 1, if the powered device 120 has a higher power supply priority relative to the powered device 130, the power supply device 110 may preferentially secure power supply to the powered device 120 and stop power supply to the powered device 130 when necessary in a case where the available power supply power is insufficient. It should be noted that the power supply priority of the power supply apparatus 110 to the power receiving apparatus 120 with respect to the power receiving apparatus 130 is realized by setting the power supply priority of the power supply ports 114-1 and 114-2. That is, the power supply apparatus 110 can set the port power supply priority of the power supply port 114-1 among all the power supply ports 114 with reference to the apparatus power supply priority provided by the power receiving apparatus 120 in the power supply information 160. For example, to set the power supply priority of the powered device 120 higher than the powered device 130, the power supply device 110 may set the power supply priority of the power supply port 114-1 higher than the power supply priority of the power supply port 114-2.

In other embodiments, the power supply information 160 may also include other information related to the power supply of the powered device 120. For example, the power supply information 160 may include any other power supply parameters desired by the powered device 120, such as a power supply voltage, etc. For another example, the power supply information 160 may include a desired power supply manner of the powered device 120, such as providing a low power supply during a certain period of time, providing a high power supply during another certain period of time, and so on. In summary, the powered device 120 can provide any information related to the power supply of the powered device 120 to the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port 112-1. In some embodiments, to better power the powered device 120, the power sourcing device 110 may negotiate and agree on the power supply of the powered device 120 to communicate with the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. For example, the power sourcing equipment 110 receiving the power sourcing information 160 of the powered device 120 at block 510 may be part of the communication negotiation process. Such an embodiment will be described in detail later with reference to fig. 6A, 6B, and 7.

At block 520, the power sourcing equipment 110 may provide power to the powered device 120 via the power port 114-1 based on the power sourcing information 160 of the powered device 120. For example, if the power supply information 160 indicates that the powered device 120 requests a decrease in the power supply of the power supply port 114-1, the power supply device 110 may decrease the power supply of the power supply port 114-1 accordingly, thereby reclaiming the available power supply and increasing the remaining available power supply. For another example, if the power supply information 160 indicates that the powered device 120 requests to increase the power supply of the power supply port 114-1, the power supply device 110 may decide whether to increase the power supply of the power supply port 114-1 as appropriate. Specifically, if the power supply apparatus 110 does not have the remaining available power supply power, or if there is a higher power receiving apparatus than the power supply priority of the power receiving apparatus 120 requesting an increase in the power supply power even if the power supply apparatus 110 has the remaining available power supply power, the power supply apparatus 110 may not increase the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1. The power supply device 110 may increase the supply power of the power supply port 114-1 if additional supply power is available. For another example, if the power supply priority of the powered device 120 is included in the power supply information 160, the power supply device 110 may provide the corresponding power supply guarantee to the powered device 120 according to the power supply priority of the powered device 120. In other embodiments, the power supply information 160 may also indicate any other information related to the power supply of the powered device 120. In these embodiments, the power sourcing equipment 110 may utilize these information in the power sourcing information 160 to better provide power to the powered device 120 via the power sourcing port 114-1, thereby improving the power provided by the power sourcing equipment 110 to the powered device 120.

By way of example method 500, by pairing data port 112-1 with power port 114-1 with data port 112-1 being separate from power port 114-1, power sourcing equipment 110 may receive power sourcing information 160 for powered device 120 from powered device 120 via data port 112-1 and provide power specific to powered device 120 according to power sourcing information 160 on paired power port 114-1 to meet individualized power demand of powered device 120. In this way, using the example method 500, the power sourcing equipment 110 of embodiments of the present disclosure may solve the problems of conventional power sourcing equipment in scenarios where the data port is separate from the power port, such that the power sourcing equipment 110 with the separate data port 112-1 and power port 114-1 may provide high performance power to the powered device 120.

As mentioned above in describing block 510 of the example method 500, to better power the powered device 120, the power sourcing equipment 110 may negotiate for communication of power for the powered device 120 with the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1 and eventually agree, such that the problem of a conventional power sourcing equipment being unable to negotiate for power supply with the powered device because the data port and the power port are separate may be solved. For example, the power sourcing equipment 110 receiving the power sourcing information 160 of the powered device 120 at block 510 may be part of the communication negotiation process. In some embodiments, such communication negotiation may be implemented based on the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP). For example, various information sent between the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 may be included in a customized "Type/Length/Value" (TLV) field within the LLDP message to enable power sourcing power negotiation, dynamic allocation of power sourcing power, power sourcing priority negotiation, and so on, between the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120. It should be appreciated that the link layer discovery protocol and TLV fields mentioned herein are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to any other currently existing or future developed communication protocols or fields. An example of the communication negotiation procedure between the power supply apparatus 110 and the powered apparatus 120 will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 6A, 6B, and 7.

Fig. 6A shows a schematic diagram of an example communication process 600 for a power sourcing equipment 110 to negotiate power sourcing power with a powered device 120 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It should be noted that for purposes of discussion, the example communication process 600 will be described below with reference to the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 of fig. 1. However, it should be appreciated that the example communication process 600 may equally be performed between a power sourcing device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure and any other suitable powered device.

As shown in FIG. 6A, after the powered device 120 is connected to the paired power port 114-1 and data port 112-1 of the power sourcing equipment 110, the powered device 120 may send 610 an indication 605 to adjust the power supply power of the power port 114-1 to the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port 112-1. Correspondingly, the power sourcing equipment 110 may receive 620 an indication 605 from the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1 to adjust the power supply power of the power sourcing port 114-1. For example, the powered device 120 may be in a low power consumption state for a longer time, the powered device 120 may negotiate the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 with the power supply device 110 based on the link layer discovery protocol LLDP. For example, the powered device 120 transmits a request to reduce the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 to the power supply device 110 via the data port 112-1. Conversely, if the powered device 120 needs to consume more power than the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1, the powered device 120 can request the power supply device 110 to allocate more power supply power to the power supply port 114-1 in the indication 605. In some embodiments, the powered device 120 may periodically transmit the power supply power currently required by the powered device 120 to the power sourcing equipment 110. In such an embodiment, if the power supply power required by the powered device 120 changes, it can be considered that the powered device 120 has sent an indication 605 to adjust the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1. In other embodiments, instead of periodically transmitting the indication 605, the powered device 120 may also transmit the indication 605 to the power supply device 110 when the required power supply changes.

After receiving 620 to the indication 605 from the powered device 120, the power sourcing equipment 110 may send 630 the power supply 615 of the power port 114-1 to the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1, i.e., the power supply 615 allocated or reserved by the power sourcing equipment 110 to the data port 112-1, depending on different scenarios. Accordingly, the powered device 120 can receive 640 the power supply 615 of the power supply port 114-1 from the power supply device 110 via the data port 112-1. For example, if the indication 605 is a request to reduce the supply power of the power port 114-1, the power sourcing equipment 110 may transmit 630 the reduced supply power 615 of the power port 114-1 to the powered device 120. In this way, the remaining available supply power of the power supply device 110 may be increased, which facilitates a flexible and rational adaptation of the supply power of the power supply device 110. For another example, if the indication 605 is a request to increase the supply power of the supply port 114-1, and the supply device 110 determines that the supply power of the supply port 114-1 can be increased, such as the supply device 110 still having an unallocated supply power or the powered device 120 having a high supply priority, the supply device 110 can transmit 630 the increased supply power 615 of the supply port 114-1 to the powered device 120. In this way, the power supply apparatus 110 can satisfy the power consumption demand of the power receiving apparatus 120, thereby improving the power supply performance to the power receiving apparatus 120.

For another example, if the indication 605 is a request to increase the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1, and the power supply apparatus 110 determines that the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 cannot be increased, such as the power supply apparatus 110 does not have unallocated power supply, or the powered apparatus 120 has a low power supply priority while another powered apparatus of a high power supply priority is requesting allocation of a higher power supply power, the power supply apparatus 110 may transmit 630 the unchanged power supply power 615 of the power supply port 114-1 to the powered apparatus 120, thereby implicitly notifying the powered apparatus 120 that the request to increase the power supply power is denied. In other embodiments, the power sourcing equipment 110 may also send an explicit notification to the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1 to indicate that the request to increase the power supply power of the power sourcing port 114-1 is denied.

Through the communication process 600, the powered device 120 can inform the powered device 110 of the desired power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 via the data port 112-1, and the power supply device 110 can also inform the powered device 120 of the adjusted (or unadjusted) power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 via the data port 112-1, so as to complete the negotiation between the powered device 110 and the powered device 120 about the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 timely and efficiently. Therefore, the power supply device 110 can adjust the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 in time according to the power demand of the powered device 120 within a possible range, so as to meet the personalized demand of the powered device 120 and improve the power supply performance for the powered device 120. Furthermore, since the power supply device 110 can dynamically adjust the power supplied to the powered device 120, the power down of the powered device due to insufficient power supply of the conventional power supply device can be avoided.

Fig. 6B shows a schematic diagram of another example communication process 650 in which the power sourcing equipment 110 negotiates a power sourcing power with the powered device 120, in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. It should be noted that for purposes of discussion, the example communication process 650 will be described below with reference to the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 of fig. 1. However, it should be understood that the example communication process 650 may be equally performed between a power sourcing equipment and any other suitable powered device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 6B, after the powered device 120 is connected to the paired power port 114-1 and data port 112-1 of the power sourcing device 110, the power sourcing device 110 can send 660 an indication 625 of power sourcing capability information (also referred to herein simply as capability information) for the power sourcing port 114-1 to the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. Correspondingly, the powered device 120 may receive 670 an indication 625 of power supply capability information of the power supply port 114-1 from the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port 112-1. In some embodiments, the powering capability of the powering port may refer to the maximum powering power of the powering port, and the powering power negotiated by the powering device 110 and the powered device 120 will be equal to or lower than the maximum powering power. By way of example only and not limitation, the power capability of power port 114-1 may be 40 watts, while the power supply device 110 may allocate a power supply to power port 114-1 of 30 watts, 40 watts below the maximum power supply. In some cases, the power sourcing equipment 110 may need to reduce the maximum power supply of the power sourcing port 114-1, for example, due to other higher priority powered devices being connected to the power sourcing equipment 110. Conversely, if the power supply apparatus 110 finds that there is still unallocated power supply remaining, the power supply apparatus 110 may also increase the maximum power supply of the power supply port 114-1. Thus, if the power sourcing equipment 110 determines that the maximum power supply power of the power sourcing port 114-1 is to be adjusted, the power sourcing equipment 110 may send 660 an indication 625 to the powered device 120. In some embodiments, the power sourcing equipment 110 may periodically send an indication 625 of the power sourcing capability information for the power sourcing port 114-1 to the powered device 120 regardless of whether the maximum power sourcing power for the power sourcing port 114-1 has changed. In other embodiments, instead of periodically sending the indication 625, the power sourcing equipment 110 may also send the indication 625 to the powered device 120 when the maximum power supply of the power supply port 114-1 changes.

After receiving the indication 625 from the power sourcing equipment 110, the powered device 120 may send 680 an indication 605 to adjust the power supply power of the power sourcing port 114-1 to the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port 112-1, depending on different scenarios. Accordingly, the power sourcing equipment 110 may receive 690 the indication 605 from the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. For example, regardless of whether the indication 625 decreases, increases, or maintains the maximum supply power of the supply port 114-1, the powered device 120 can send an indication 605 to adjust the supply power of the supply port 114-1 to the supply device 110 via the data port 112-1 as appropriate to apply for a supply power to the supply device 110 that is equal to or lower than the maximum supply power of the supply port 114-1. In this way, the powered device 120 can request the appropriate power supply power from the power supply device 110 according to the power supply capability of the power supply port 114-1, thereby facilitating the power supply device 110 and the powered device 120 to efficiently negotiate a reasonable power supply power. It should be noted that if the powered device 120 determines that the power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 does not need to be adjusted, the powered device 120 may send 680 an indication 605 to the power supply device 110 to indicate the same power supply power as used before, thereby implicitly notifying the power supply device 110 that the power supply port 114-1 does not need to be adjusted. In other embodiments, the powered device 120 may also send an explicit notification to the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port 112-1 to indicate that the power supply power of the power sourcing port 114-1 does not need to be adjusted.

Through the communication process 650, the power sourcing equipment 110 may inform the powered device 120 of the power sourcing capability, i.e., the maximum power sourcing power, of the power sourcing port 114-1 via the data port 112-1. In this way, the powered device 120 can request the power supply device 110 for the appropriate power supply power according to the power supply capability of the power supply port 114-1, so that the power supply device 110 and the powered device 120 can negotiate a reasonable power supply power efficiently, and the power supply performance of the power supply device 110 for the powered device 120 is improved.

Fig. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example communication process 700 for a power sourcing equipment 110 negotiating a power sourcing priority with a powered device 120 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. It should be noted that for discussion purposes, the example communication process 700 will be described below with reference to the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 of fig. 1. However, it should be appreciated that the example communication process 700 may equally be performed between a power sourcing device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure and any other suitable powered device.

As shown in FIG. 7, after the powered device 120 is connected to the paired power port 114-1 and data port 112-1 of the power sourcing device 110, the powered device 120 can send 710 the power sourcing priority 705 for the powered device 120 to the power sourcing device 110 via the data port 112-1. Correspondingly, the power sourcing equipment 110 may receive 720 the power sourcing priority 705 for the powered device 120 from the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. In some embodiments, the power priority 705 may be a device priority of the powered device 120 itself, and may be set according to the importance of different powered devices. For example, if the powered device 120 is an internet phone device, the powered device 120 may be set with a higher power priority 705. For another example, if the powered device 120 is an entertainment device, the powered device 120 may be set with a lower power priority 705. It will be understood that the different types of powered devices 120 described herein having either a high or low power priority are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, the entertainment device may also have a higher power priority than the internet phone device, depending on the particular system environment and application scenario. In some embodiments, the powered device 120 may periodically transmit 710 the power supply priority 705 of the powered device 120 to the power sourcing device 110, so that the power sourcing device 110 may evaluate the importance of the powered device 120 in all powered devices connected to the power sourcing device 110 in real time, and thus the actual power supply priority of the powered device 120, i.e., the port power supply priority of the power supply port 114-1, may be flexibly adjusted.

After receiving the power supply priority 705 of the powered device 120, the power supply device 110 can set the port power supply priority of each power supply port 114, that is, the actual power supply priority of each powered device at the power supply device 110, based on the power supply priority of the powered device connected to each power supply port 114. For example, referring to fig. 1, assuming that the power receiving apparatus 120 connected to the power supply port 114-1 of the power supply apparatus 110 is an internet phone apparatus, the power supply priority thereof may be "extremely high (Critical)". In addition, assuming that the power receiving apparatus 130 connected to the power supply port 114-2 of the power supply apparatus 110 is a network camera, the power supply priority thereof may be "High". Further, assuming that the power receiving apparatus (not shown) connected to the power supply port 114-3 of the power supply apparatus 110 is an entertainment apparatus, the power supply priority thereof may be "Low". In this case, the power supply apparatus 110 may accordingly set the power priority of the power supply port 114-1 to "extremely high", the power priority of the power supply port 114-2 to "high", and the power priority of the power supply port 114-3 to "low".

Note that, when setting the port power supply priority of the power supply port 114, the power supply apparatus 110 does not necessarily need to completely match the apparatus power supply priority of the power receiving apparatus itself. In some embodiments, the power supply device 110 may also take into account other factors such as the particular system environment and application scenario when setting the power supply priority for each power supply port 114. For example, if the entertainment device connected to power port 114-3 is participating in a competition, power device 110 may set the power priority of power ports 114-1 and 114-3 to "extremely high" and the power priority of power port 114-2 to "high". Alternatively, the power supply apparatus 110 may set the power supply priority of the power supply port 114-3 to "extremely high", the power supply priority of the power supply port 114-1 to "high", the power supply priority of the power supply port 114-2 to "low", and the like. It will be appreciated that other arrangements of the power supply priority of the various power supply ports 114 are possible in this particular scenario, so long as the power supply port 114-3 is made to have a relatively high power supply priority.

It should be noted that the device power priority hierarchy and port power priority hierarchy listed herein for each

powered device

120 and 130, etc., and each power port 114, are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, each power port 114 of the power sourcing equipment 110 may have three power sourcing priorities of "very high", "high" and "low", while the powered device may have a more elaborate power sourcing prioritization hierarchy, such as the five power sourcing priorities represented by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. For another example, the powered device may have three power supply priorities of "extremely high", "high", and "low", and the respective power supply ports 114 of the power supply device 110 may be provided with a finer power supply prioritization hierarchy, such as five power supply priorities represented by the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. As another example, both the powered device and the respective power endpoints 114 may have power priority of any number of priority levels.

After setting the actual power priority of the powered device 120, i.e., the power priority of the power port 114-1, the power sourcing device 110 may transmit 730 the power priority 715 of the power port 114-1 to the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. Correspondingly, the powered device 120 can receive 740 the power priority 715 of the power port 114-1 from the power sourcing equipment 110 via the data port 112-1. As such, the powered device 120 can learn the power priority 715 of the power port 114-1, i.e., the actual power priority of the powered device 120 at the power sourcing device 110. Accordingly, the powered device 120 can schedule the operation of the powered device 120 according to the actual power supply priority. For example, if the powered device 120 is notified that it has a higher actual power supply priority at the power supply device 110, the powered device 120 can consider that its power supply has a high guarantee, so that a more important operation can be performed. Conversely, if the powered device 120 is notified that it has a lower actual power supply priority at the power supply device 110, the powered device 120 may regard that its power supply is not guaranteed, and thus may abandon the operation of high importance.

Through the communication process 700, the power sourcing device 110 can obtain the device power sourcing priority of the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1 to determine a port power sourcing priority for the power sourcing port 114-1 of the powered device 120. Therefore, the power supply apparatus 110 can provide the corresponding power supply guarantee to the power receiving apparatus 120 according to the power supply priority of the power receiving apparatus 120, thereby better managing the power supply of the power receiving apparatus 120 and satisfying the power consumption demand of the power receiving apparatus 120. For example, if the powered device 120 has a high power priority, the power sourcing device 110 may guarantee normal power supply by the powered device 120 when the power sourcing device 110 encounters a sudden drop in input power.

As mentioned above in describing block 510 of example method 500, if the pairing relationship between the data port 112 and the power port 114 of the power sourcing equipment 110 is configurable, the power sourcing equipment 110 may need to look up in the configuration information 400 whether there is a pairing relationship between the data port 112-1 and the power port 114-1 after the powered device 120 is connected to the data port 112-1 and the power port 114-1. If such a pairing relationship exists, the power supply apparatus 110 can manage power supply to the power supply port 114-1 using the power supply information 160 of the power receiving apparatus 120. Such an embodiment will be described below with reference to fig. 8.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an example operational procedure 800 of the power device 110 when the pairing relationship between the power port 114-1 and the data port 112-1 is configurable, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that the example operational procedure 800 may be considered a specific example of the example method 500 described above in some cases. In some embodiments, the example operational procedure 800 may be implemented by the power supply device 110 in the example system environment 100, such as by a processor or processing unit of the power supply device 110. In other embodiments, the example operational process 800 may also be implemented by a power supply device that is separate from the example system environment 100. For ease of illustration and without loss of generality, the example operational process 800 will be discussed with reference to fig. 1, with the power sourcing equipment 110 performing the example operational process 800 to source power to the powered device 120 as an example. However, it should be understood that the example operational process 800 may be equally performed by the power sourcing equipment 110 of the present disclosure to power any other powered device connected to its power sourcing port.

At block 810, the power sourcing equipment 110 may detect whether a powered device is connected to the power sourcing port on each power sourcing port 114. For example, when powered device 120 is connected to power port 114-1, power device 110 can detect that powered device 120 has been connected to power port 114-1. Thus, the power sourcing equipment 110 may timely discover that the powered device 120 is connected to the power sourcing port 114-1, in turn provide power to the powered device 120 accordingly and may subsequently manage the power supply to the powered device 120 via the paired data port 112-1. In some embodiments, the detection process may be similar to the power sourcing equipment to powered device detection process (also referred to as a physical probing process) specified in the power over ethernet protocol, such as the basic probing flow in the IEEE 802.3 protocol. For example, the power supply apparatus 110 can determine whether the power receiving apparatus is present by detecting a resistance-capacitance value between the pair of power supply output lines. In some embodiments, the detection phase output voltage may be 2.8V-10V, and the voltage polarity may coincide with the 52V output. Only if the power receiving apparatus is detected, the power supply apparatus 110 proceeds to the next operation. In some embodiments, the powered device is present characterized by a DC impedance between 19K-26.5K Ω and a capacitance value of no more than 150nF. If the characteristic rc detected by the power supply apparatus 110 does not meet the value defined by the above standard, that is, the opposite end apparatus can be considered as a non-standard powered apparatus, the power supply apparatus 110 may not supply power. If the characteristic resistance-capacitance detected by the power unit 110 meets the values defined by the above criteria, the power unit 110 may enter a second stage classification stage.

In addition, at block 810, upon detecting the powered device 120 connected to the power port 114-1, the power sourcing device 110 may also rank the powered device 120 to determine which power level the powered device 120 belongs to, and initially power the powered device 120 at the ranked power level (e.g., the rated power of the powered device 120). For example, in the classification process for the powered device 120, the power sourcing equipment 110 may determine the power consumption of the powered device 120. Specifically, the power sourcing equipment 110 may determine the power level of the powered device 120 by detecting the power source output current. In some embodiments, the port output voltage of the classification stage may be 15.5V-20.5V, and the voltage polarity may coincide with a 52V voltage output. In some embodiments, powered device 120 may draw a constant current (a classification signature) from the line, indicating its required maximum power to power sourcing equipment 110. The power sourcing equipment 110 may measure this current to determine to which power class the powered device 120 belongs. In some embodiments, the current of the power sourcing equipment 110 used during classification may be limited to 100mA to avoid damage to the powered device 120, and the connection time may not exceed 75ms to control the power consumption of the powered device 120. In the preliminary power supply phase, when the power supply apparatus 110 detects that the powered apparatus 120 on the power supply port 114-1 belongs to a legitimate powered apparatus, and the power supply apparatus 110 has completed classifying this powered apparatus 120, the power supply apparatus 110 may start to supply power to the powered apparatus 120, outputting a voltage of, for example, 48V.

It should be understood that the particular values recited herein for the various parameters are exemplary only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, all of the relevant parameters described above may have any other suitable values. In addition, in other embodiments, the detection process (or classification process, preliminary power supply process, etc.) of the powered device may also follow other similar protocols that are currently existing or developed in the future, or be directly implemented by using a physical detection means such as mechanical or electrical. Further, it should be appreciated that the classification and preliminary powering of the powered device 120 by the power sourcing device 110 is not required for block 810 and is optional, and the power sourcing device 110 may proceed directly to block 820 after detecting the powered device 120.

At block 820, the power sourcing equipment 110 may query the paired data port to which the power sourcing port of the powered device is connected. For example, after the powered device 120 is connected to the power port 114-1, the power device 110 can look up the configuration information 400 described above for a data port that is paired with the power port 114-1 to which the powered device 120 is connected. In this way, the power supply apparatus 110 can timely determine the data port corresponding to the power supply port to which the powered apparatus is connected, so as to obtain the power supply information of the powered apparatus from the data port. In some embodiments, since the configuration information 400 of the pairing relationship between the power port 114 and the data port 112 is user editable, the user may configure the pairing relationship between the power port 114 and the data port 112 at dashed box 825. Note that the operation performed by the user, which is not the operation performed by the power supply apparatus 110, is represented by a dashed box 825. For example, the user may access the management interface of the power supply apparatus 110, and set the pairing relationship between the power supply port 114 and the data port 112 by modifying the content of the configuration information 400. In general, the user may set the pairing relationship at any time. For example, the user may have set the data port 112-1 to pair with the power port 114-1 before the powered device 120 is connected to the power port 114-1. As another example, a user may set that the data port 112-1 is paired with the power port 114-1 after a period of time after the powered device 120 has been connected to the power port 114-1. Therefore, in order to find the data port paired with the power supply port 114-1 in time, the power supply device 110 may periodically query the configuration information 400 to determine the data port paired with the power supply port 114-1. Alternatively, the power supply device 110 may also periodically poll each data port 112 to determine whether there is a paired power supply port for the data port. If there is a paired powered port on the data port, the power supply apparatus 110 can transmit information about the paired powered port on the data port in a subsequent operation.

At block 830, the power sourcing equipment 110 may determine whether there is a paired data port with the power sourcing port to which the powered device is connected. For example, for the power sourcing port 114-1 to which the powered device 120 is connected, the power sourcing device 110 may determine whether there is a paired data port for the power sourcing port 114-1. For example, after the user sets the data port 112-1 to be paired with the power port 114-1, the power supply device 110 can query the configuration information 400 that there is a paired data port 112-1 in the power port 114-1. Otherwise, if the user has not set a paired data port for power port 114-1, power device 110 may determine that no paired data port exists for power port 114-1 by querying configuration information 400.

At block 840, if the power sourcing equipment 110 determines that there is a paired data port with the power sourcing port of the powered device connected, the power sourcing equipment 110 may negotiate for power sourcing with the powered device via the paired data port. For example, if the power sourcing device 110 determines that there is a paired data port 112-1 for the power port 114-1, the power sourcing device 110 may negotiate with the powered device 120 for power via the data port 112-1. The specific power supply negotiation process may be similar to the power supply power and power supply priority communication negotiation process described above with reference to fig. 6A, 6B, and 7. More generally, the powering device 110 and the powered device 120 may also negotiate power parameters for any other aspect of the power port 114-1 via the data port 112-1. For example, power device 110 may include various power parameters for power port 114-1 in a TLV field in a link layer discovery protocol message and send to powered device 120 via data port 112-1. Likewise, powered device 120 may also include its desired power parameters in the TLV field in the link layer discovery protocol message and send to power device 110 via data port 112-1. In some embodiments, the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 may periodically send link layer discovery protocol messages to each other via the data port 112-1.

At block 850, after completing the power negotiation via the data port 112-1, the power sourcing equipment 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 via the power port 114-1 according to the negotiated power sourcing parameters. For example, if the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 complete the negotiation on the power sourcing power, the power sourcing equipment 110 may power the powered device 120 at the negotiated power sourcing power of the power sourcing port 114-1. For another example, if the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 complete the negotiation on the power sourcing priority, the power sourcing equipment 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 in accordance with the negotiated power sourcing priority of the power sourcing port 114-1. More generally, if the power sourcing equipment 110 and the powered device 120 complete negotiations on other power sourcing parameters, the power sourcing equipment 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 in accordance with any other negotiated power sourcing parameters for the power sourcing port 114-1.

On the other hand, if the power sourcing device 110 determines at block 830 that no paired data port exists for the power port 114-1, then at block 860, the power sourcing device 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 via the power port 114-1 in accordance with the default power supply parameters for the powered device 120. For example, the power sourcing equipment 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 at the default power supply power of the power supply port 114-1 (or the powered device 120). For another example, the power sourcing equipment 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 in accordance with a default power supply priority of the power supply port 114-1. More generally, the power sourcing equipment 110 may supply power to the powered device 120 in accordance with any other default power supply parameter of the power port 114-1. Note that if the power sourcing equipment 110 has already preliminarily powered the powered device 120 at block 820 at a default power supply power (e.g., the rated power of the powered device 120), the power sourcing equipment 110 may keep powering the powered device 120 at the default power supply power at block 860.

By way of example operation 800, in the case where the pairing relationship between the power port 114 and the data port 112 is configured, the power sourcing equipment 110 can determine in time whether the power port to which the powered device is connected is paired to the data port by, for example, querying the configuration information 400. If there is a paired data port, the power supply device 110 can perform power supply negotiation with the powered device on the data port, so as to provide targeted power supply to the powered device, so as to improve the power supply performance and the operation performance of the powered device. The power sourcing equipment 110 may also provide preliminary power to the powered device if there is no paired data port, so that the powered device may function properly. Thus, using the example operational procedure 800, the power performance of the power supply device 110 may be improved.

Fig. 9 shows a block diagram of a power supply device 110 having an example port arrangement 900 in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 9, the power supply apparatus 110 may further include a processor 115 and a memory 117 in addition to the data port 112 and the power supply port 114. In some embodiments, the memory 117 may store instructions 118, such as computer program instructions 118, and the memory 117 and the computer program instructions 118 may be configured to, with the processor 115, cause the power supply device 110 to perform various example methods or example processes in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, various example methods or example processes may include the example method 500 for managing power supply depicted in fig. 5, the example communication processes 600, 650, and 700 depicted in fig. 6A, 6B, and 7, and the example operational process 800 depicted in fig. 8, among others.

In the example port arrangement 900 of fig. 9, the data ports 112 are arranged in rows, while the power ports 114 are arranged in rows below the rows of data ports 112. With this arrangement, the data port is adapted to mate with a closer power port to facilitate use of the unitary opto-electric composite cable 300 depicted in fig. 3, for example. It will be understood that the depiction of the row of data ports 112 as being above the row of power ports 114 in fig. 9 is merely exemplary, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, the row of data ports 112 may also be located below the row of power ports 114.

In some embodiments, the processor 115 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of the following as non-limiting examples: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and processors based on a multi-core processor architecture. Further, the power supply device 110 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time following a clock synchronized to the main processor.

In some embodiments, memory 117 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memory include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, a hard disk, a Compact Disk (CD), a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), and other magnetic and/or optical storage devices. Examples of volatile memory include, but are not limited to, random Access Memory (RAM) or other volatile memory that cannot be persisted during a power loss.

In some embodiments, the computer program instructions 118 may comprise computer-executable instructions that may be executable by the associated processor 115. The computer program instructions 118 may be stored in the ROM of the memory 117. Processor 115 may perform various suitable actions and processes by loading computer program instructions 118 into RAM of memory 117.

In some embodiments, the memory 117 and the computer program instructions 118 may be configured to, with the processor 115, cause the power sourcing equipment 110 to receive power sourcing information for the powered device 120 from the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. Further, the memory 117 and the computer program instructions 118 may also be configured to, with the processor 115, cause the power sourcing equipment 110 to provide power to the powered device 120 via the power sourcing port 114-1 and based on the power sourcing information. Therefore, compared to a conventional power supply apparatus, the performance of the power supply apparatus of the embodiment of the present disclosure to supply power to the powered apparatus with the data port separated from the power supply port can be improved.

In some embodiments, the data port 112-1 of the power sourcing equipment 110 may be connected to the powered device 120 through the

optical fibers

210 and 220 or 310 and 320 in the optical electrical

composite cable

200 or 300, and the power port 114-1 of the power sourcing equipment 110 is connected to the powered device 120 through the

power supply lines

240 and 250 or 340 and 350 in the optical electrical

composite cable

200 or 300. In this way, high-rate data transmission can be achieved between the power supply apparatus and the powered apparatus while achieving long-distance power transmission.

In some embodiments, memory 117 is also used to store configuration information. The configuration information may indicate a pairing relationship between power port 114-1 and data port 112-1. For example, the power supply apparatus 110 may store the configuration information in the memory 117. As such, the power supply apparatus can conveniently and efficiently manage the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port.

In some embodiments, the memory 117 and the computer program instructions 118 may be further configured to, with the processor 115, cause the power sourcing equipment 110 to look up the data port 112-1 paired with the power sourcing port 114-1 in the configuration information 800 in response to the powered device 120 being connected to the power sourcing port 114-1. In this way, the power supply apparatus can timely determine the data port corresponding to the power supply port to which the power receiving apparatus is connected, so as to obtain the power supply information of the power receiving apparatus from the data port.

In some embodiments, the configuration information 800 is user editable. Therefore, the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port of the power supply equipment can be determined by a user according to a specific application environment and a specific scene, so that the use flexibility of the power supply equipment can be improved.

In some embodiments, the power information 160 may include at least one of: an indication to adjust the power supply power of the power supply port, and a power supply priority of the powered device. Therefore, the power supply equipment can adjust the power supply power of the power supply port according to the request of the powered equipment, and can provide corresponding power supply guarantee for the powered equipment according to the power supply priority of the powered equipment, so that the power consumption requirement of the powered equipment is better met.

In some embodiments, the memory 117 and the computer program instructions 118 may also be configured to, with the processor 115, cause the power sourcing equipment 110 to transmit capability information of the power sourcing port 114-1 to the powered device 120 via the data port 112-1. In this way, the power receiving apparatus can request appropriate power supply power from the power supply apparatus according to the power supply capability of the power supply port, thereby facilitating efficient negotiation of reasonable power supply power by the power supply apparatus and the power receiving apparatus.

In some embodiments, the power supply device 110 further includes a detection circuit 119. The detection circuit 119 may be used to detect whether the powered device is connected to a power supply port. For example, the detection circuit 119 may include a detection circuit based on a physical detection means such as mechanical detection or electrical detection, such as a detection chip in a power supply device conforming to the power over ethernet protocol, or the like. Thus, the power sourcing equipment may discover in a timely manner that the powered device is connected to the power sourcing port, and accordingly provide power to the powered device and manage the power to the powered device, possibly via the paired data port. It should be understood that although fig. 9 illustrates the detection circuit 119 as being disposed external to the processor 115, in other embodiments, the detection circuit 119 may be part of the processor 115. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the function of detecting whether a powered device is connected to a power port may also be implemented by the detection circuit 119 in cooperation with the processor 115.

Fig. 10 shows a block diagram of a power supply device 110 having another example port arrangement 1000 in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown, the power supply apparatus 110 depicted in fig. 10 is similar to that of fig. 9, except for the arrangement of the data port 112 and the power supply port 114. In the example port arrangement 1000 of fig. 10, the data ports 112 are arranged collectively on one side of the power supply apparatus 110, and the power supply ports 114 are arranged collectively on the other side of the power supply apparatus 110. By such an arrangement, the data port is adapted to be paired with any power port regardless of the physical distance between the two, and is therefore more suitable for use with an opto-electronic composite cable 200 that is separated by an optical fiber 215 and a power supply wire 245, such as depicted in fig. 2. It will be understood that the positioning of the data port 112 on the left side of the power supply 110 and the power port 114 on the right side of the power supply 110 in fig. 10 is merely exemplary and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. In other embodiments, the power port 114 may be located on the left side of the power supply device 110 and the data port 112 may be located on the right side of the power supply device 110, or the power port 114 and the data port 112 may be located in any other suitable portion on the power supply device 110.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that the data ports 112 and the power ports 114 of the power supply device 110 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may have any suitable arrangement, and are not limited to the row arrangement depicted in fig. 9 and the area arrangement depicted in fig. 10. For example, the arrangement of the data port 112 and the power port 114 may make full use of the space on the power sourcing equipment 110, and at the same time may facilitate connection to different powered devices.

Fig. 11 shows a block diagram of an example apparatus 1100 for managing power supply in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may be implemented at the power supply device 110 in the example system environment 100, e.g., by a processor or processing unit of the power supply device 110. In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may be implemented as the power supply device 110. In other embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may also be implemented by a power supply device that is separate from the example system environment 100.

In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may perform the example method 500 and may include means for performing the respective steps of the example method 500. As used herein, components may be embodied in any suitable form. For example, the components may be implemented in circuitry or in software modules. Also for example, the components may include at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory may store computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the example apparatus 1100 to perform the respective steps of the example method 500 or other example processes of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may include a means for receiving 1110 and a means for supplying 1120. In particular, the component 1110 can be configured to receive power sourcing information for a powered device from the powered device via a data port, the data port being paired with the power sourcing port and being separate physical ports from each other. The component 1120 may be configured to provide power to the powered device via the power port and based on the power information. With the example apparatus 1100, performance of a power sourcing device to supply power to a powered device with a data port separate from a power port may be improved.

In some embodiments, the data port of the power sourcing equipment may be connected to the powered device through an optical fiber in the opto-electrical composite cable, and the power port of the power sourcing equipment is connected to the powered device through a power supply line in the opto-electrical composite cable. In this way, high-rate data transmission can be achieved between the power supply apparatus and the powered apparatus while achieving long-distance power transmission.

In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may further include: means for storing configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power port and the data port. As such, the power supply apparatus can conveniently and efficiently manage the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port.

In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may further include: means for looking up a data port paired with the power port in the configuration information in response to the powered device being connected to the power port. In this way, the power supply apparatus can determine the data port corresponding to the power supply port to which the power receiving apparatus is connected in time to obtain the power supply information of the power receiving apparatus from the data port.

In some embodiments, the configuration information may be user editable. Therefore, the pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port of the power supply equipment can be determined by a user according to a specific application environment and a specific scene, so that the use flexibility of the power supply equipment can be improved.

In some embodiments, the power supply information may include at least one of: an indication to adjust the power supply power of the power supply port, and a power supply priority of the powered device. Therefore, the power supply equipment can adjust the power supply power of the power supply port according to the request of the powered equipment, and can provide corresponding power supply guarantee for the powered equipment according to the power supply priority of the powered equipment, so that the power consumption requirement of the powered equipment is better met.

In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may further include: means for transmitting capability information of the power port to the powered device via the data port. In this way, the powered device can request appropriate power supply power from the power supply device according to the power supply capability of the power supply port, thereby facilitating the power supply device and the powered device to efficiently negotiate out reasonable power supply power.

In some embodiments, the example apparatus 1100 may further include: means for detecting that a powered device is connected to a power port. Accordingly, the power sourcing equipment can timely discover that the powered device is connected to the power sourcing port, and accordingly provide power to the powered device and manage power supply to the powered device via the paired data port.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic diagram of an example computer-readable medium 1200 in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in fig. 12, the computer-readable medium 1200 may take the form of a CD or DVD, or any other suitable form, having the instructions 118 stored thereon. As mentioned above in describing fig. 9 and 10, embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by the instructions 118 to cause the power supply apparatus 110 to perform any of the example methods or example processes of the present disclosure as previously discussed with reference to fig. 5-8. Of course, embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or a combination of software and hardware. In some embodiments, the computer readable medium 1200 tangibly embodying the instructions 118 may be included in the power supply device 110 (e.g., the memory 117), or in other storage devices accessible to the power supply device 110. The power unit 110 may read the instructions 118 from the computer-readable medium 1200 into the RAM of the memory 117 for execution. The computer-readable medium 1200 may include various tangible, non-volatile storage devices, such as a ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, and so forth.

In general, the various example embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Certain aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. For example, in some embodiments, various examples of the disclosure (e.g., a method, apparatus, or device) may be partially or fully implemented on a computer-readable medium. While aspects of embodiments of the disclosure have been illustrated or described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, included in a device executing on a physical or virtual processor of the target to perform the example methods or example processes 500, 600, 650, 700, and 800 described above with respect to fig. 5-8. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. In various embodiments, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or divided between program modules as described. Computer-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within local or distributed devices. In a distributed facility, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage media.

Program code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in one or more programming languages. These computer program code may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program code, when executed by the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, causes the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram to be performed. The program code may execute entirely on the computer, partly on the computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable a device, apparatus or processor to perform the various processes and operations described above. Examples of a carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More detailed examples of a machine-readable storage medium include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof.

Additionally, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In some cases, multitasking or parallel processing may be beneficial. Likewise, while the above discussion contains certain specific implementation details, this should not be construed as limiting the scope of any invention or claims, but rather as a description of specific embodiments that may be directed to a particular invention. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A method for managing power supply, comprising:

a power supply apparatus receiving power supply information of a power receiving apparatus from the power receiving apparatus via a data port, the data port being paired with a power supply port and being physical ports separated from each other; and

the power supply apparatus supplies power to the power receiving apparatus via the power supply port and based on the power supply information,

the method further comprises the following steps: the power supply device stores configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power supply port and the data port.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data port of the power sourcing equipment is connected to the powered device through an optical fiber in an opto-electronic composite cable, and the power port of the power sourcing equipment is connected to the powered device through a power supply line in the opto-electronic composite cable.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the powered device being connected to the power port, the power device looks up the data port paired with the power port in the configuration information.

4. A method according to claim 1 or 3, wherein the configuration information is user editable.

5. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the power supply information comprises at least one of:

an indication for adjusting the supply power of the supply port, an

A power supply priority of the powered device.

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

the power supply apparatus transmits capability information of the power supply port to the power receiving apparatus via the data port.

7. A power supply apparatus comprising:

a power supply port;

a data port paired with the power port and being separate physical ports from each other;

a processor; and

a memory storing computer program instructions, wherein the memory is further to store configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power port and the data port, and wherein the memory and the computer program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the power sourcing equipment to:

receiving power supply information of a powered device from the powered device via the data port; and

supplying power to the powered device via the power supply port and based on the power supply information.

8. The power supply apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a detection circuit to detect that the powered device is connected to the power supply port.

9. An apparatus for managing power supply, comprising:

means for receiving power supply information of a powered device from the powered device via a data port, the data port being paired with a power supply port and being physical ports that are separate from each other;

means for supplying power to the powered device via the power supply port and based on the power supply information; and

means for storing configuration information indicating a pairing relationship between the power port and the data port.

10. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.