Adtran Gmbh

Jason Perry Lyon

John S McGary

Steven M Robinson

Erik Stefan Bahl

A power supply system has redundant regulated power supplies, whose output ports are diode-ORed to an output node. One of the power supplies outputs a regulated output voltage that is sufficient to meet current demand of a load coupled to the output node. Each power supply has an associated monitoring circuit that monitors the voltage drop across its OR-ing diode. The monitoring circuit for a non-dominant power supply controls its operation so that the non-dominant supply provides a reduced current through its diode to the output node that is less than the current demand of the load, but sufficient to forward bias the diode, and thereby enable the non-dominant supply to immediately respond to a load change, such as an interruption in the operation of the dominant power supply.

Method and apparatus for forced current sharing in diode-connected redundant power supplies

A processor controlled mechanism automatically determines from a location such as a central office whether termination equipment installed at a remote end of a wireline link is span-powered, or is powered locally. It then applies a voltage to the wireline link that is appropriate for the identified type of termination equipment. This eliminates the need for two separate central office loop-powering devices. In the course of making the determination, nothing higher than a safety extra low voltage is applied to the wireline link, to comply with Underwriter's Laboratory standards for locally powered customer premises equipment.

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Huntsville, AL, United States of America

Jason Perry Lyon