Distributing excess power over PoE

This patent describes a system for distributing power in a PoE-based system.  In PoE, DC power is superimposed on the Ethernet signal lines.

PoE began as a simple hack, and was never fully specified.  Eventually some bounds were created around the power suppliers and consumers in a PoE-based network, and well-specified higher-power versions of PoE have been developed.

In PoE, power supply devices must be able to deliver the full amount of their rated current on each channel, but often this capacity goes unused.

This patent application describe a method of distributing the excess power capacity in a PoE-based network.  This allows efficient use of the availability capacity, which generally works most efficiently when fully loaded.