Physical Layer Management Using RFID and Near-Field Coupling Techniques

• US 20110097925A1
• Filed: 10/26/2010
• Published: 04/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panduit Corporation
• Original Assignee: Panduit Corporation
• Inventors: Nordin, Ronald A., Caveney, Jack E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,427,335 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 439/488
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 1/138 using RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 1/149 Wireguides in connector blocks

Abstract

An intelligent network physical layer management system is provided that includes hardware that tracks the connection of plugs of patch cords in interconnect or cross-connect patching environments. RFID signaling is combined with near-field communication techniques to provide a reliable physical layer management system. In interconnect configurations, RFID tags are associated with switch ports of an Ethernet switch, enabling the system of the present invention to detect patch cord insertion and removal at switch ports and to receive information about the switch ports. In cross-connect configurations, RFID signaling is used to track the connections of patch cords between two patch panels. Systems according to the present invention avoid the problems associated with traditional galvanic connections previously used for tracking patch cord connections. An alternative common-mode system is also described.

Claims

1. A physical layer management system comprising:

a first jack, the jack having an associated RFID tag and an associated signal generator;

a second jack, the second jack having an associated RFID reader; and

a patch cord, the patch cord having two plugs, each plug having;

a plug antenna and an LED circuit, each LED circuit having a first circuit containing a first light emitting diode (LED) and having a first resonant frequency, and a second circuit containing a second LED and having a second resonant frequency, wherein the first resonant frequency is different than the second resonant frequency, and

wherein each LED circuit is electrically connected to the other, each plug antenna is electrically connected to the other, and wherein the signal generator is configured to generate a signal at a frequency of at least one of the first resonant frequency and the second resonant frequency such that the generation of the signal will illuminate at least one of the first LED and the second LED and wherein the RFID tag is configured to send a signal over the patch cord to the RFID reader.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first circuit comprises a first capacitor and the second circuit comprises a second capacitor, the first capacitor having a different capacitance than the second capacitor.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the first circuit is in parallel with the second circuit, the first and second circuits further being in series with an inductor.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the RFID tag is configured to send a signal over the patch cord to the RFID reader via an out of band wire pair.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the RFID tag is configured to send a signal over the patch cord to the RFID reader over the out of band wire pair by having the plug antennas be electrically connected to each other over the out of band wire pair.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the LED circuits are electrically connected to each other over the out of band wire pair.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the RFID tag is configured to send a signal to the RFID reader in a common mode signal over two wire pairs of the patch cord.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the RFID tag is configured to send a signal to the RFID reader in a common mode signal over two wire pairs of the patch cord by having the plug antennas be electrically connected to each other via the two wire pairs.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the LED circuits are connected to each other over the same two wire pairs that connect the plug antennas.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the LED circuits are connected to each other over two different wire pairs than the ones that connect the plug antennas.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the first LED is red and the second LED is green.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the first resonant frequency is approximately 80 kHz and the second resonant frequency is approximately 3 MHz.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the signal sent over the patch cord from the RFID tag to the RFID reader contains information comprising at least one of:

an RFID number, a switch port number, a switch type, a rack number, a physical location description, and a provisioning time.