System and Method for Providing a Tile Management Controller

• US 20150256396A1
• Filed: 01/05/2015
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Palmer, John R., Ahmed, Syed S., Masuyama, Jinsaku
• Granted Patent: US 10,075,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A floor tile for a data center floor includes a memory device and a tile management controller coupled to the memory device. The tile management controller receives configuration information for a server rack located on the floor tile and stores the configuration information in the memory device.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a server rack including a rack management controller coupled to a rack communication module; and

an active floor tile including a tile management controller coupled to a tile communication module, wherein the tile communication module is coupled to the rack communication module.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the rack communication module and the tile communication module each comprise a complimentary wired communication interface.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the wired interface includes one of an RS-232 interface, an Ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus interface, a Firewire interface, a Controller Area Network interface, an I2C interface, and a Serial Peripheral Interface.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the rack communication module and the tile communication module each comprise a complimentary wireless communication interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless interface includes one of a Near Field Communications interface, a WiFi interface, and a Bluetooth interface.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the server rack includes configuration information; and

the server rack provides the configuration information to the active floor tile.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the configuration information includes one of a grid location of a data center floor upon which the server rack is located, a weight limit for the server rack, and an Internet Protocol address range for the equipment in the server rack.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the active floor tile includes configuration information; and

the active floor tile provides the configuration information to the server rack.

9. A method comprising:

coupling a rack management controller of a server rack in a data center to a rack communication module of the server rack;

coupling a tile management controller of an active floor tile of the data center to a tile communication module of the active floor tile; and

coupling the rack communication module to the tile communication module.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the rack communication module and the tile communication module each comprise a complimentary wired communication interface.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the wired interface includes one of an RS-232 interface, an Ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus interface, a Firewire interface, a Controller Area Network interface, an I2C interface, and a Serial Peripheral Interface.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the rack communication module and the tile communication module each comprise a complimentary wireless communication interface.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the wireless interface includes one of a Near Field Communications interface, a WiFi. interface, and a Bluetooth interface.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the server rack includes configuration information; and

the method further comprises providing the configuration information from the server rack to the active floor tile.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the configuration information includes one of a grid location of a data center floor upon which the server rack is located, a weight limit for the server rack, and an Internet Protocol address range for the equipment in the server rack.

16. The data center of claim 9, wherein:

the active floor tile includes configuration information; and

the method further comprises providing the configuration information from the active floor tile to the server rack.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including code for performing a method, the method comprising:

coupling a rack management controller of a server rack in a data center to a rack communication module of the server rack;

coupling a tile management controller of an active floor tile of the data center to a tile communication module of the active floor tile; and

coupling the rack communication module to the tile communication module.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the rack communication module and the tile communication module each comprise a complimentary wired communication interface, wherein the wired interface includes one of an RS-232 interface, an Ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus interface, a Firewire interface, a Controller Area Network interface, an I2C interface, and a Serial Peripheral Interface.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the rack communication module and the tile communication module each comprise a complimentary wireless communication interface, wherein the wireless interface includes one of a Near Field Communications interface, a WiFi interface, and a Bluetooth interface.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein:

the server rack includes configuration information;

the method further comprises providing the configuration information from the server rack to the active floor tile; and

the configuration information includes one of a grid location of a data center floor upon which the server rack is located, a weight limit for the server rack, and an Internet Protocol address range for the equipment in the server rack.