Telecom Equipment With RFIDs

• US 20070176745A1
• Filed: 01/30/2006
• Published: 08/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telect Incorporated (Amphenol Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Telect Incorporated (Amphenol Corporation)
• Inventors: Gibson, Jeff, Lohf, Lloyd
• Application Number:
  US11/275,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20070176745A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Embodiments of telecommunications equipment with RFID tags are presented herein.

Claims

1. A telecommunication cable configured to interconnect two components comprising a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag disposed on one end and storing designation data describing the location of the other end of the cable within a telecommunications infrastructure.

2. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1 further comprising a second radio frequency identification (REID) tag disposed on said other end and storing designation data describing the location of said first end within the telecommunications infrastructure.

3. The telecommunication cable described in claim 2 wherein at least one said RFID tag stores designation data describing the location of both ends of the cable.

4. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1 wherein the designation data describes the unique identifier of a RFID tag associated with a telecommunication equipment housing in which the other end of the cable is terminated.

5. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1 wherein the designation data includes an identifier corresponding to a component to which the other end of the cable is connected.

6. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1, wherein the RFID tag is configured to store a type of cable.

7. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1, wherein the RFID tag is configured to store a type of cable connectors.

8. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1, wherein the location corresponds to a connection point within a telecommunication cabinet.

9. The telecommunication cable described in claim 8 wherein the connection point has an associated RFID tag and the designation data describes the RFID identifier associated with the connection point.

10. The telecommunication cable described in claim 1 wherein the RFID tag corresponds to infrastructure data accessible via a database.

11. The telecommunication cable described in claim 10 wherein the database describes an interrelation between a plurality of equipment within the telecommunication infrastructure.

12. A system comprising pieces of telecommunication equipment arrangable to provide a plurality of signal pathways within a telecommunications infrastructure, wherein:

each said piece of telecommunication equipment has a respective one of a plurality of RFID tags; and

a plurality of said telecommunications equipment is arranged within another of said telecommunications equipment.

13. The system described in claim 12 wherein each of the plurality of said telecommunication equipment is selected from the group consisting of:

a module;

a component;

a network element; and

a cable.

14. The system described in claim 12 wherein the other said equipment is a cabinet.

15. The system described in claim 12 wherein the other said telecommunications equipment is configured as a module insertable into one or more components to provide a plurality of connection points and at least one of the plurality of said telecommunications equipment is configured as a cable connectable to the module.

16. The system as recited in claim 12 wherein:

the plurality of said telecommunication equipment includes a cable, a module and a component; and

the cable is connected to a connecting point of the module and the module is inserted into the component.

17. The system as recited in claim 12 wherein the other said piece of equipment is a telecommunications equipment cabinet and the plurality of said telecommunications equipment includes a cable connected within the cabinet on at least one end.

18. A method comprising:

reading an RFID tag associated with a piece of telecommunication equipment; and

receiving a plurality of RFIDs from the RFID tag.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 further comprising, obtaining infrastructure data corresponding to the piece of telecommunication equipment

20. The method as recited in claim 19 wherein the infrastructure data is obtained from the RFID tag.

21. The method as recited in claim 19 wherein the infrastructure data is stored in a database accessible to a reading device performing the reading.

22. The method as recited in claim 19 wherein the infrastructure data is stored in storage on a reading device performing the reading.

23. The method as recited in claim 19 wherein the infrastructure data describes an interrelation between the piece of telecommunication equipment and at least one other piece of telecommunication equipment.

24. A method comprising:

disposing an RFID tag on a piece of telecommunications equipment; and

arranging a plurality of sub-components configured to be received by the piece of telecommunication equipment within the piece of telecommunications equipment, wherein each sub-component has a respective RFID tag.

25. The method described in claim 24 further comprising storing an RFID corresponding to the piece of telecommunications equipment on the respective RFID tag of at least one said sub-component.

26. The method recited in claim 24 wherein the telecommunication equipment is configured as a cabinet.

27. The method recited in claim 24 further comprising arranging at least one other sub-component within one said sub-component of the plurality of sub-components, wherein each other sub-component has a respective RFID tag.