order of their priority when the priority of the current port port p is not greater than the priority of any currently powered port step 202 no branch processing returns to step 103 because it is not possible to re allocate power at this time similarly if the system software determines that the combined power configuration of all currently powered lower priority ports plus the available power pool is not greater than the power configuration of the current port p step 203 no branch it is not possible to re allocate power to the current port port p note that the software does not ever disable currently powered lower priority ports unless the software determines that the combined power configurations of these lower priority ports plus the available power pool exceeds the required power configuration of port p and that the re allocation is feasible a port in the u2018 pending power allocation u2019 state can be subsequently enabled if additional capacity becomes available in the power pool in accordance with one embodiment ports in the u2018 pending power allocation u2019 state may request power the order in which these ports request power is based on the priority assigned to the ports thus port in the u2018 pending power allocation u2019 state may be subsequently enabled if capacity becomes available in the power pool and the priority of the port is high enough the available capacity of the power pool may increase in various circumstances for example the available capacity of the power pool increases if a previously detected powered device is disconnected or the user disables a port previously enabled to supply a.