Patent ID: 8861554

Claim:
A service unit for use at a distribution point between a network facility and a plurality of customer premises, comprising: a first plurality of transceivers, including at least a first transceiver and a second transceiver, coupled to a plurality of customer premises (CP) transceivers via drop connections, each of the drop connections coupled to a respective one of the CP transceivers; a second plurality of transceivers coupled to the network facility via a plurality of communication connections, each of the communication connections shared by each of the CP transceivers; forwarding logic configured to forward data packets to the first plurality of transceivers, wherein the data packets include data received by the second plurality of transceivers; and a power management unit configured to receive electrical power from at least one of the drop connections and to power at least one component of the service unit based on the received electrical power, the power management unit configured to estimate an amount of the electrical power received from at least one of the drop connections and to determine whether to activate at least one of the second plurality of transceivers based on the estimate, the power management unit further configured to control an activation state of the second transceiver based on the estimated amount of the electrical power received from the at least one drop connection such that the second transceiver is not activated while the first transceiver is activated, wherein the activation state of the second transceiver affects an aggregate data rate for the plurality of CP transceivers without the activation state preventing any of the plurality of CP transceivers from receiving services via the plurality of communication connections.