Methods and apparatus relating to the supply of power to power over ethernet devices

An access point comprising:

• a Power over Ethernet (PoE) power input;
• hardware processing circuitry;
• and
• an electronic memory storing instructions that when executed configure the hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:
• determining an amount of traffic communicated by the access point during a predefined elapsed time period,
• determining, by the access point, based on the amount of traffic, a number of wireless transmitters,
• determining, by the access point, based on the number of wireless transmitters, a power requirement of the access point, and
• communicating, from the access point, a power request to a Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE), the power request indicating the determined power requirement.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed configure hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:

• determining, by an access point, an amount of traffic communicated by the access point during a predefined elapsed time period;
• determining, by the access point, based on the amount of traffic, a number of wireless transmitters;
• determining, by the access point, based on the number of wireless transmitters, a power requirement of the access point;
• and
• communicating, by the access point, a power request to a Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE), the power request indicating the determined power requirement.