The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 13, 2012
Filed:
May. 03, 2010
Frederick Roland Schindler, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Rudolph B. Klecka, Iii, Austin, TX (US);
Scott Lawrence Lennartz, Portland, OR (US);
John Alvin Herrmann, Round Rock, TX (US);
Yonghan Kang, Austin, TX (US);
Dylan Walker, Austin, TX (US);
Johnston Reid Mcgaughey, Austin, TX (US);
Frederick Roland Schindler, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Rudolph B. Klecka, III, Austin, TX (US);
Scott Lawrence Lennartz, Portland, OR (US);
John Alvin Herrmann, Round Rock, TX (US);
Yonghan Kang, Austin, TX (US);
Dylan Walker, Austin, TX (US);
Johnston Reid McGaughey, Austin, TX (US);
Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A set of network communications devices shares available power among themselves to meet overall system power loading. An individual device is configured to include a local power supply delivering power to a local power bus at a local supply voltage varied in response to a voltage control signal. A protection component is connected between the local power bus and an external power cable used to connect the device to another device for sharing power. The protection component provides an interruptible low-impedance DC path for carrying current based on direction and magnitude of a voltage difference between the local power bus and the external power cable. Control circuitry is used to: (a) drive a current-sharing bus connected among the devices to influence a value of a system current-sharing signal indicating a level of system power loading among the devices; (b) generate a difference signal indicating a difference between local power loading of the local power supply and the system power loading reflected by the system current-sharing signal; and (c) generate the voltage control signal based on the difference signal to achieve a predetermined sharing of the system power loading by the local power supply.