Hello together,
    I had a quick thought 
    about Yairs 
    point.
    I agree, a PD should not 
    send out power it receives on the other wires.
    This may cause a problem in 
    the switch. If the power sources for individual ports are connected in the switch, it may also cause problems in other devices attached to the 
    switch.
     
    However, I think if the 
    data pair has a diode bridge, and the spare pairs have a diode  in each 
    pair ( a half bridge) , 
    
    the problem you described 
    cannot happen. 
     
    So there is no need to mandate polarity insensitivity on the 
    spare pairs per 
se.
     
    Such a polarity insensitivity would make sense only 
    we consider a cabling that swaps the spare pins is considered as a scenario 
    that needs to work with power over lan. ( May be using Gigabit crossover 
    cables.... )
     
    Iīm not sure if the wording of current version of the standard 
    prevents injecting power backwards from the PD to the 
    PSE.
    If its not in, it should be added of 
    course.
     
    Best 
    regards,
     Carsten 
    
     
 
    
      
      Hi,
       
      I would like to discuss 
      the benefits in mandating diode bridge at the input of both data pairs and 
      spare pairs.
       
      Background
       
      The PD is required to be 
      ready to accept power from the spare pairs or from the data 
      pairs.
      Typical implementation of 
      Oring the power from data pairs or spare pairs could be one of the 
      following options:
      1. Data pairs has diode 
      bridge and spare pairs using single diode.
      2. Data pairs has diode 
      bridge and spare pairs has diode bridge.
      3. Data pairs and spare 
      pairs has has single series diode each, data pair should have diode bridge 
      if the PD is auto-mdi-x.
       
      Now lets consider the 
      following case:
      A multiport system 
      activate port number  x and send power to the PD.
      The PD is configured per 
      option 1 or 3.
      Now, there is voltage 
      present at the output of the oring diode, but, due to the fact that one of 
      the leads of the spare pair is directly connected to one pair data 
      pairs
      There is a leakage 
      current path from the data pairs to the spare pairs back to the 
      PSE.
       
      This leakage current will 
      find its way to other ports in the PSE and may affect the detection 
      function.
      In some bob-smith 
      termination configurations that was good for a switch without pse and 
      are not suitable for switch with pse some ports may see voltages 
      above 30V even if they are at OFF state.
       
      In order to prevent such 
      scenarios, option 2 is suggested that keep DC isolation from the spare 
      pare to the data pairs and vice versa.
       
      In addition, using diode 
      bridge at the data pairs will fix the issue raised by Moti Goldish 
      regarding the MDI-X/AUTO MDI-X issue.
       
      Mandating diode bridge on 
      both pairs will ensure powering of the PD in any PSE configuration and in 
      any cable type straight or crossed cable
      so we can 
      eliminate  the potential of interoperability 
      problems regarding the ability to successfully powering the 
      PD.
      The data issue is solved 
      by the definitions for the PSE and PD, by the pin assignment and polarity 
      for the MDI/MDI-X/AUTO MDI-X configurations as described in tables 33-1and 
      table 33-7.
      Actually referring to 
      Auto MDI-X in tables 33-1 and table 33-7 will not be required 
      anymore.
       
       
      Summary:
       
      The suggested remedy to 
      support the above is:
       
      Draft 4.2 page 
      60:
      1. Delete the 
      text at lines 50-51:
      "If the 
      interface is implemented as an MDI-X or Auto-MDI-X per Clause 14,the PD 
      shall be polarity insensitive "
       
      Replace it with the 
      following text: "The 
      interface in Mode A and in Mode B shall be polarity 
      insensitive.
       
      2. Consider to delete the 
      reference for Auto-MDI-X from tables 33-1 and 33-7 as it is not required 
      due to (1).
       
       
      I believe that to mandate 
      the above is required.   
       
      Please comment over the 
      above issue as soon as possible.
       
      Thanks
       
      Yair.
       
       Darshan Yair
Chief  Engineer
PowerDsine 
      Ltd.  -  Powering Converged Networks
1 Hanagar St., P.O. Box 
      7220
Neve Ne'eman Industrial Zone
Hod Hasharon 45421, 
      Israel
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