Power over ethernet local data processing

A data processing device for a power over Ethernet system comprising

• a data communicating unit for establishing a first connection to a power sourcing equipment and a second connection to a powered device, wherein the data communicating unit is configured for intercepting central data transmitted from the power sourcing equipment to the powered device, and
• a data processing unit configured to process the intercepted central data in dependence of local data received from a local powered device, wherein the data communicating unit is configured for transmitting the processed data to the powered device, and wherein the local data comprises user input data, sensing data, or user input data and sensing data
• a simple logic unit configured for encoding data in a characteristic of one or more data packets, decoding data encoded in a characteristic of one or more data packets, and/or processing data encoded in a characteristic of one or more data packets;
• wherein the characteristic comprises data packet length, data packet duration, number of data packets in a predetermined time interval, and/or sequence of data packets.