DEVICE AND METHOD FOR A SUBSCRIBER POWERED NETWORK ELEMENT

A method for electrically powering a network element (110, 404, 500, 700, 1000, 1200) of a wide area network (WAN) by a first subscriber terminal (134, 702, 1010, 135, 705, 1302), the method comprising:at the network element:applying a first predetermined load to a first electrical port of the network element for the purpose of being detectable by the first subscriber terminal using a first low-level detection current;receiving a first electrical power through the first electrical port of the network element responsive to applying the first predetermined load, and wherein the first electrical power has additional current and/or voltage than the first low-level detection current;converting the first electrical power for use by the network element;receiving optical data communications though an optical port of the network element;converting the optical data communications to electrical service provider data communications;de-aggregating the electrical service provider data communications to one or more subscriber data communications; andtransmitting at least one of the one or more subscriber data communications to the first subscriber terminal though the first electrical port.