Directing a power signal from a port power controller to one of multiple physical ports

An apparatus, comprising:

• a set of physical ports;
• a set of port power controllers, each port power controller being constructed and arranged to deliver power to a device through at most one physical port at a time;
• switching circuitry coupled to the set of physical ports and the set of port power controllers;
• and
• control circuitry coupled the set of port power controllers and the switching circuitry, the control circuitry being constructed and arranged to provide, based on discovery data provided by a set of discovery operations, a set of switching signals to the switching circuitry to steer power signals from the set of port power controllers through the set of physical ports to deliver power to a set of devices.

Logic encoded on one or more tangible computer readable media for execution and when executed operable to:

• activate a set of port power controllers, each port power controller being constructed and arranged to deliver power to a device through at most one physical port at a time;
• perform a set of discovery operations to discover device presence, the set of discovery operations providing discovery data;
• and
• based on the discovery data provided by the set of discovery operations, provide a set of switching signals to switching circuitry which is coupled to a set of physical ports, the switching circuitry being constructed and arranged to steer power signals from the activated set of port power controllers through the set of physical ports to deliver power to a set of devices.