STORING DATA RELATING TO CABLES

• US 20120063501A1
• Filed: 01/15/2010
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Aguren, Jerry G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,225,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/224
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/11 using pulse reflection methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A cable adapter apparatus (201) is disclosed having at least one adapter (203) and a controller (206). The adapter apparatus is operable to: determine connection of a cable test device (208) to a first port (230, 231, 232) of the at least one adapter; receive data from the test device relating to at least one tested characteristic of a cable (251, 261, 271) connected to a second port (240, 241, 242) of the at least one adapter opposite said first port; and store the received tested cable characteristic data in a memory. The stored tested cable characteristic data may be made available to a cable monitor application (225). A method including storing data resulting from processing data from a reflected signal is also disclosed. A modified reflectometer device adapted to be connected to a first port of a cable adapter is also disclosed.

Claims

1. Cable adapter apparatus comprising at least one adapter and a controller, the adapter apparatus being operable to:

determine connection of a cable test device to a first port of the at least one adapter;

receive data from the test device relating to at least one tested characteristic of a cable connected to a second port of the at least one adapter opposite said first port;

store the received tested cable characteristic data in a memory; and

make the stored tested cable characteristic data available to a cable monitor application.

2. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cable test device comprises a time domain reflectometer (TDR) or an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR).

3. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tested cable characteristic data includes a length of cabling connected to the second port.

4. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, further operable to:

determine a connected condition of an end connector of a network communication cable to the first port of the at least one adapter;

receive from time to time, from the network communication cable end connector, data relating to at least one characteristic of the cable connected to the first port;

store the received network communication cable data in a memory; and

make the stored network communication cable data available to a cable monitor application.

5. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cable adapter apparatus comprises a multi-adapter apparatus, the controller comprising memory to store received network communication cable data and the received tested cable characteristic data for the respective first and second ports of each respective adapter.

6. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one first integrated circuit (IC) device respectively associated with the at least one adapter, the at least one first IC device being operable to:

communicate with a second integrated circuit (IC) device associated with a connector connected to the first port, to identify the present connection type at the first port as a cable test device connection or a network communication cable connection;

store data received from the present connection to a memory in accordance with the connection type identification; and

make the data available to the controller.

7. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 6, wherein the at least one first IC device is operable to store the data received from the present connection to a memory of the first IC device.[break out box]

8. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a processor, and stored program instructions executable by the processor to cause the controller to communicate the stored tested cable characteristic data and stored network communication cable data over a network to a cable monitor application using a network protocol.

9. The cable adapter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cable adapter apparatus comprises a data center patch panel.

10. A method comprising

detecting connection of a time domain reflectometer (TDR) device or an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) device to a first port of a cable adapter of a multi-adapter apparatus;

obtaining and processing reflected signal attenuation data from a cable connected to a second port of the adapter; and

storing data resulting from the processing in memory associated with the multi-adapter apparatus.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising storing the respective resulting data from a plurality of said adapters in local memories associated with the respective adapters and/or in memory of a controller of the cable multi-adapter apparatus.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the resulting data comprises cable length data.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

detecting connection of an end connector of a network communication cable to the first port;

receiving from time to time from the network communication cable end connector data relating to at least one characteristic of a cable presently connected to the first port;

storing the received network communication cable data in the memory; and

making the data resulting from the TOR or OTDR processing and the stored network communication cable data available over a network to a cable monitor application.

14. A time domain reflectometer (TDR) or optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) device adapted to be connected to a first port of a cable adapter, obtain and process reflected signal attenuation data from a cable connected to a second port of the adapter, provide device type identification data to enable the adapter to determine connection of a cable test device to the first port, and output data resulting from the processing for storage in accordance with the determined device type in a memory associated with the adapter.

15. The TOR or OTDR device of claim 14, further comprising a coupling to couple the TDR or OTDR device to a cable end connector for connecting the TDR or OTDR device to the first port of the cable adapter, the connector comprising a first integrated circuit (IC) device operable to communicate with a second integrated circuit (IC) device associated with the adapter, the first IC device comprising a memory identifying the connector to the second IC circuit as a TDR or OTDR connector.