System and method for mirroring power over ethernet registers in a physical layer device over a single isolation boundary
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsWael William Diab, Nariman Yousefi, Scott Powell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for mirroring power over Ethernet (PoE) registers in physical layer devices (PHYs) over a single isolation boundary. PHYs in a PoE system can be arranged in a master/slave configuration. In this configuration, a master PHY can be designed to communicate with the power source equipment controllers via a single isolation device.
Claims24
A power over Ethernet system, comprising:
- a master physical layer device;
- a plurality of slave physical layer devices, each of said plurality of slave physical layer devices having associated power source equipment controllers on an opposite side of a single isolation boundary from said master physical layer device;
- said master physical layer device including:
- one or more Ethernet transceivers;
- a first register space for storing information relating to said one or more Ethernet transceivers in said master physical layer device;
- a second register space for storing information relating to power source equipment controllers associated with slave physical layer devices;
- a first communication interface for receiving a first message having information relating to a first power source equipment controller associated with a first slave physical layer device in said plurality of slave physical layer devices;
- a second communication interface for transmitting a second message based on said first message to a controller device that facilitates passage of said second message to said first power source equipment controller associated with said first slave physical layer device.
A method in a master physical layer device operating in a power over Ethernet environment having a plurality of slave physical layer devices, each of said plurality of slave physical layer devices having associated power source equipment controllers on an opposite side of a single isolation boundary from said master physical layer device, comprising:
- receiving, in said master physical layer device, a first message having information relating to a first power source equipment controller associated with a first slave physical layer device in said plurality of slave physical layer devices;
- and
- transmitting a second message based on said first message to a controller device that facilitates passage of said second message to said first power source equipment controller associated with said first slave physical layer device.
A power over Ethernet method, comprising:
- receiving a first message in a master physical layer device that contains power over Ethernet registers for power source equipment controllers associated with said master physical layer device and power source equipment controllers associated with a plurality of slave physical layer devices, wherein all of said power source equipment controllers are on an opposite side of a single isolation boundary relative to said master physical layer device;
- updating, in said master physical layer device, a power over Ethernet register for a first power source equipment controller associated with a first of said plurality of slave physical layer devices based on said received first message;
- and
- transmitting a second message based on said first message, from said master physical layer device to a controller device that facilitates passage of said second message to said first power source equipment controller associated with said first slave physical layer device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.