Patent ID: 8352754

Claim:
In a communications system having power source equipment (PSE) and a plurality of power requiring devices (PRD), the PSE providing power to the PRDs over the communications system, a method of power management comprising: monitoring a power consumption of at least one PRD; dynamically adjusting the power allocated to the at least one PRD based on the monitored power consumption of the at least one PRD; maintaining a power queue of PRDs which are connected to the communications system, wherein the PRDs in the power queue are currently powered and wherein the PRDs in the power queue are ranked in an order of priority; determining that there is a decrease in the maximum power supplied by the PSE; deallocating power from PRDs in the power queue, wherein a PRD which ranks lowest in priority in the power queue is deallocated first, and wherein PRDs from which power is deallocated are deallocated PRDs, and wherein power is deallocated from PRDs in the power queue until the maximum power supplied by the PSE is at least sufficient to supply power to the powered PRDs; assigning the deallocated PRDs to a priority queue, determining a total reserve power currently available from the PSE as a maximum power supplied by the PSE minus an average of the power supplied over a period of time to all PRDs which are currently powered; allocating power to an unpowered PRD in the priority queue while the total reserve power is greater than or equal to a minimum required reserve power, wherein the unpowered PRD becomes a powered PRD; and removing the powered PRD from the priority queue and placing the powered PRD in the power queue, wherein the priority of the unpowered PRD in the priority queue is based on a time order in which the PRD is connected to the communications system.