GB2598588A

GB2598588A - Shared reliable power supply for common community electronics

Info

Publication number: GB2598588A
Application number: GB2013802.0A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Raymond New Christopher
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2020-09-02
Filing date: 2020-09-02
Publication date: 2022-03-09
Also published as: GB202013802D0

Abstract

A system for providing power to electronic equipment of a data distribution service shared by a plurality of users 1, characterised in that the power is supplied simultaneously from multiple users or sources 2 by feeding power from the sources into an aggregator 3 that then supplies the data distribution equipment 5, wherein each individual power supply is capable of supplying more than its required load to compensate for any deficiencies in the event of one or several of the power supplies being offline. Each user may provide a proportion of the required power. Each individual power supply may be capable of powering the data distribution equipment in the event of every other supply being offline. The users may be clients of the data distribution system. The data distribution electronic unit may be a router or a switch.

Description

Shared reliable power supply for common community electronics This invention is concerned with the maintenance of power to electronic equipment that serves several users in a community and where a single reliable power source is not available or not appropriate. It ensures increased reliability of the operation of equipment by simultaneously taking power from several of the users. It feeds the power into a unit that aggregates the individual supplies, sharing the load taken from the active power supplies, thus maintaining operation of the electronic equipment even in the event of one or several of the power supplies failing or being switched off.

By way of example, this could be for the maintenance of power to electronic equipment such as a router or switch which directs electronic data to separate houses in a village, where only domestic electrical supplies exist from individual houses.

In this example, if only one user supplies the power, then in the event of the failure of that power supply, all the other users lose the service. Further, the user that supplies the power bears the cost and the responsibility of maintaining the power supply to the electronic distribution equipment for all the users of that service.

This invention solves this problem by providing an alternative power supply method which shares the electrical load more equitably and increases the reliability by adding redundancy into the system, thus ensuring the equipment remains functional in the event of one or more power supplies failing or being switched off.

By users providing a share of the power from individual power supplies, each capable of supplying a large proportion of the load, some of the power supplies can fail or be accidentally turned off and the equipment will still function correctly.

If there are only a few users, it would be prudent to use power supplies where each is capable of supplying the full load of the electronic equipment. In this case all but one of the power supplies can fail or be switched off and the equipment will continue to be functional.

If there are many users, smaller power supplies can be used still retaining a large level of redundancy. For example, if there are 6 users and each power supply can supply half the total load, then 4 of the 6 supplies could fail and the shared electronic equipment would still be fully functional.

The invention will now be described by reference to Figs 1 and 2.

Fig 1 shows a number of users (1) all receiving electronic data (4) from shared electronic equipment (5) which is electrically powered from multiple power supplies (2) connected to a piece of equipment labelled 'aggregator' (3). The aggregator is designed to share the load from different power sources (2), each one of which is fed from a different user. It feeds the common electronic equipment (5) (say a router or switch) which distributes electronic data (3) to the users.

Fig 2 illustrates the worst case where only one of the power supplies (1) from (user n) is operational. The remaining power supplies have either failed or have been turned off. In this case all the users can still receive the electronic data they require because the remaining operational power supply has the capacity to operate the common equipment on its own.

In one embodiment of the system, used when the users are close together, and they are only a few hundred meters from the electronic equipment, the users may derive their supply voltage from a simple DC power supply with an output voltage a little above the feed voltage required by the common electronic equipment. The aggregator may, in this least demanding setup, consist of a resistive network fed through diodes to isolate individual supplies and balance the load between the users.

When the users are far apart, different lengths of feed wire from the individual user's power supplies would have lead to significantly different resistances in the cable from the power supply to the aggregator. This could vary from a few tens of metres to more than a kilometre. If the supply potential were the same for all users, different users would be supplying different amounts of current to the aggregator and, in the event of the only working supplies were from distant users, the voltage drop across the feed wires may be high enough to prevent proper functioning of the shared equipment.

Thus an alternative embodiment of the system is required to take account of the different resistances of the feed wires from various users. In such a situation the voltage regulation of the power supplies may be carried out adjacent to the aggregator or the power supplies for each user may be adjacent to the aggregator.

In this case the power may be supplied as an AC or DC feed from a position local to the user to a position local to the aggregator. This power is then fed into individual power supplies units, one for each user, to feed the aggregator.. By the use of appropriate electronics these power supply units local to the aggregator may be able to accept a range of voltages and then supply the correct voltage into the aggregator.

It may also be necessary, or prudent to have the individual supplies electically isolated from each other. This may be either local to the user or at the aggregator.

Thus this invention allows for the maintenance of a safe and reliable electronic data feed to a group of individual users who share the supply of power to the data distribution network which continues to work satisfactorily even if several of the individual power feeds from the users fail to function.

Claims

Claims Shared reliable power supply for common community electronics 1. A system for providing power to electronic equipment that is used in a data distribution service common to a number of users that is characterised in that the power is supplied simultaneously from more than one user or other separate source by feeding power into an aggregator that shares the supply from these separate sources to power the equipment and where the individual power supplies are capable of supplying more than their normal share of power required to keep the electronic equipment working to compensate for any power deficiency in the event of one or several of the other power supplies failing or being switched off.
2. A system as in claim 1 where all of the users of a data distribution system normally provide a proportion of the power to the common electronic equipment.
3. A system as in claims 1 where individual power supplies are capable of supplying enough power to maintain the electronic unit working if all other power supplies fail or are switched off.
4. A system as in claims 1 where the users are clients of a data distribution system.6. A system as in claims 1 where the electronic unit is a router or switch in a data distribution system.