Patent ID: 7664136

Claim:
An inline power device, comprising: a first port configured as a powered device (PD) port for coupling power and data with a port of an external power sourcing equipment (PSE), the first port facilitating a power negotiation with the port of the external PSE; a plurality of selectable electrical components for use in establishing a magnitude of a power request from the external PSE, said selectable electrical components being selected as a function of said power negotiation; a summation unit configured to: receive a power level from the PSE via the first port in response to the power negotiation with the external PSE, the power level representing a total amount of power provided to the inline power device by the PSE, detect a power consumption level associated with the inline power device, the power consumption level associated with an amount of power utilized by the inline power device during operation, and detect an available power level for use by a downstream coupled PD based upon a difference between the power level and the power consumption level; a second port configured as a PSE port for coupling available power and data with a port of a downstream coupled PD; and a PSE manager unit configured for receiving inline power requests from a downstream coupled PD and responsive to the summation unit for providing up to the available power level to the downstream coupled PD.