Switching hub intelligent power management

A method of power management for local area network hubs, comprising the steps of:

• providing a network switching hub including a connection backplane with a plurality of connection slots and at least once power rail;
• providing at least one power supply having one or more elements providing a maximum power available for the system, said power supply being connected to said power rail;
• connecting manageable modules to said switching hub via said connection slots, each manageable module of said manageable modules having a memory providing information as to the power requirements of said manageable module;
• and
• receiving data from said manageable modules as to power requirements and calculating power requirements of the system and receiving data as to the maximum power available for automatically controlling a connection of each manageable module to the power rail and supplying power to each manageable module if the power requirements of the system do not exceed the maximum power available for the system.

A power management system for local area network hubs, comprising:

• a network switching hub including and a connection backplane and a plurality of connection slots;
• a power supply having one or more elements providing a maximum power available for the system;
• manageable modules connected to said switching hub, each of said manageable modules having memory means connected to the module providing information as to the power requirements of the module;
• a power control circuit included in each of said manageable modules, said controller module being connected to said power control circuit of each of said manageable modules for controlling a connection of said manageable modules to said power supply
• a controller module connected to said manageable modules via said switching hub, said controller module including memory means for receiving data from said manageable modules as to power requirements and receiving data as to said maximum power available for the system, module presence sensing means connected to each of said connection slots for determining whether a module is connected to each of said connection slots and microprocessor means for calculating power requirements of the system and acting on said power connection means for controlling the connection of each module to the power supply to supply power to each module of said modules which is connected via a slot to said backplane provided the calculated power requirements of the system do not exceed the maximum power available for the system.

A method of power management for local area network hubs, comprising the steps of:

• providing a network switching hub including a connection backplane with a plurality of connection slots and at least one power rail;
• providing at least one power supply having one or more elements providing a maximum power available for the system, said power supply being connected to said power rail;
• connecting a first manageable module to said switching hub, said manageable module having a memory providing information as to the power requirements of the module;
• providing a controller with a memory and a microprocessor;
• receiving data at said controller from said manageable module as to power requirements and calculating power requirements of the system based on the connected manageable module and receiving data as to the maximum power;
• using the microprocessor to determine if the power requirements of the system exceed the maximum power available for the system;
• supplying power to said manageable module if the power requirements of the system do not exceed the maximum power available for the system by controlling a connection of said manageable module to said power rail.