Patent ID: 8793511

Claim:
A power service equipment, comprising: a Power over Ethernet (POE) manager configured to monitor a status of a powered device that receives PoE power from the power service equipment, the PoE manager comprising an interface module configured to receive data transmitted from the powered device, and a power level module configured to determine a power requirement for the powered device based, at least in part, on data received from the powered device, wherein the power level module determines a reduced power requirement for the powered device in response to the interface module receiving data from the powered device indicating that the powered device has entered an idle state characterized by a reduced network communication transmission rate; a data store configured to store data related to power requirements of the powered device and periodically update the stored data using a link layer discovery protocol; and a PoE power source configured to adjust an amount of PoE power delivered to the powered device based on the determined power requirement.