Patent ID: 7890776

Claim:
In a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) system, an automated method of dynamically supplying power to one or more personal computing devices, comprising: (a) detecting one or more personal computing devices; (b) determining power requirements over a Layer 2 type communication layer for each of the detected personal computing devices; (c) receiving priority information for each of the detected personal computing devices over the Layer 2 type communication layer; (d) determining an available amount of power in a power supply; (e) determining a respective allocated amount of power for each of the detected personal computing devices based on the available amount of power and the power requirements of each respective personal computing device, wherein the priority information for each of the detected personal computing devices is used to determine the respective allocated amount of power for each of the detected personal computing devices when the available amount of power is less than the power requirements of all of the detected personal computing devices; and (f) supplying the respective allocated amounts of power from the power supply to the respective personal computing devices.