Virtual interface to the PoE device through an expanded registered map in a networking device such as a PHY
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorWael William Diab
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided is a Power over Ethernet (PoE) device. The PoE device includes a physical layer device (PHY) including a first number of registers PHY and a power sourcing equipment (PSE) device. The PSE device (i) includes a second number of registers and (ii) is electrically coupled to the PHY. The contents of one of the first and second number of registers is an extension of the other of the first and second number of registers.
Claims13
A first Power over Ethernet (PoE) device, comprising:
- a PoE controller, including a first number of PoE control registers, configured to control a transfer of power between the first PoE device and a second PoE device over a communication link;
- a physical layer device (PHY), including a second number of PoE control registers, configured to communicate data between the first PoE device and the second PoE device over the communication link, the second number of PoE control registers corresponding to the first number of PoE control registers;
- and
- an electrical isolator, coupled to the PHY, configured to enable the first number of PoE control registers to be substantially simultaneously programmed with contents of corresponding registers within the second number of PoE control registers when the second number of PoE control registers are programmed.
A method for providing software programming to modules within a first Power over Ethernet (PoE) device, the method comprising:
- programming first registers within a physical layer device (PHY) within the PoE device,
- programming substantially simultaneously with the programming of the PHY registers, via an electrical isolator, corresponding second registers within the first PoE device;
- and
- upon programming the corresponding second registers, controlling a transfer of power between the first PoE device a second PoE device over a communication link and communicating data between the first PoE device and the second PoE device over the communication link.
A first Power over Ethernet (PoE) device, comprising:
- a PoE controller, including a first number of PoE control registers, configured to control a transfer of power between the first PoE device and a second PoE device over a communication link;
- a switch chip, including a second number of PoE control registers, configured to couple to a software host;
- and
- an electrical isolator, coupled to the switch chip and the PoE controller, configured to substantially simultaneously reflect contents of the second number of PoE control registers to corresponding ones of the first number of PoE control registers to allow the software host to control the PoE controller by accessing the second number of PoE control registers without accessing the first number of PoE control registers directly.
A first Power over Ethernet (PoE) device, comprising:
- a physical layer device (PHY) including a first number of PoE control registers, a first group of control registers within the first number of PoE control registers being associated with a second number of PoE control registers, the PHY being configured to communicate data between the first PoE device and a second PoE device over a communication link;
- and
- a PoE controller, including the second number of PoE control registers, configured to control a transfer of power between the first PoE device and the second PoE device over the communication link;
- an electrical isolator configured to couple the first number of PoE control registers and the second number of PoE control registers,
- wherein contents to be programmed within the second number of PoE control registers is programmed into the first group of control registers and copied from the first group of control registers to the second number of PoE control registers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.