Persistent Power over Ethernet

A method comprising:

• providing, by PSE, DC power to a PD;
• maintaining, by an operating system, a data plane for routing data;
• maintaining, by the operating system, at least in part, a power plane for supplying the DC power to the PD by:
• communicating with the PD to negotiate an allocation of power to the PD;
• and
• determining a power allocation for the PD;
• maintaining, by a PoE manager separate from the operating system, at least in part, the power plane;
• receiving, at the PoE manager and from the operating system, the power allocation for the PD;
• controlling, by the PoE manager, the PSE to deliver power over a PoE connection to the PD based on the power allocation for the PD received from the operating system;
• when the operating system is rebooting, monitoring, by the PoE manager, the PoE connection, controlling the PSE to deliver power over the PoE connection to the PD based on the power allocation for the PD received from the operating system separate from the PoE manager, and causing the PSE to stop delivering power over the PoE connection based on a condition detected by the PoE manager independently from the operating system;
• and
• logging, by the PoE manager, a PoE event occurring during a time the operating system is unavailable, wherein the logged PoE event is accessible to the operating system when the operating system becomes available.

An apparatus comprising:

• PSE configured to provide DC power to PDs;
• an operating system configured to maintain a data plane for routing data, wherein the operating system comprises a PoE application configured to maintain, at least in part, a power plane for supplying the DC power to the PDs by:
• communicating with one or more PDs to negotiate an allocation of power to the one or more PDs respectively;
• and
• determining a power allocation for the one or more PDs;
• a PoE manager, separate from the operating system, configured to:
• maintain, at least in part, the power plane;
• control the PSE to deliver power over one or more PoE connections to the one or more PDs based on the power allocation determined by the operating system;
• cause the PSE to stop delivering power over a first PoE connection of the one or more PoE connections based on a detected condition, wherein when the operating system or the PoE application is unavailable, the PoE manager monitors the one or more PoE connections and supplies the DC power to the PDs using the PSE;
• and
• log a PoE event occurring during a time the operating system is unavailable and wherein the logged PoE event is accessible to the operating system when the operating system becomes available.