Intelligent track system for mounting electronic equipment

• US 7,857,214 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2007
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liebert Corporation (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Original Assignee: Liebert Corporation (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Inventors: Saliaris, David G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Michael G
• Assistant Examiner(s): ELLIS, SUEZU Y
• Application Number:
  US11/873,236
• Publication Number:
  US 20080265722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 Days
• Field of Search: 235/381, 235/383, 235/385, 235/375, 235/440, 235/441, 235/449, 235/451, 361724-727, 361/721, 361/752, 361/790, 361/794, 361/796, 361/797, 361/800, 340/572.1, 340/686.1, 340/686.4, 340/687, 340/10.1, 340/10.3, 340/545.2, 340/545.3, 340/545.4, 340/547, 340/551, 340/552, 340/561, 340/562, 340/572.4, 340/825.49
• US Class Current: 235/383
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/181 Enclosures for portable computers G06F1/1613
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/183 Internal mounting support structures, e.g. for printed circuit boards, internal connecting means for buses G06F13/409
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1498 Resource management, Optimisation arrangements, e.g. configuration, identification, tracking, physical location thermal management H05K7/20836

Abstract

The present invention provides an intelligent track system generally mounted in a network, server, or telecom rack/enclosure rack rail that can sense the spaces, such as “U” spaces, used by electronic equipment, shelving, or blanking panels and provide such information to a remote location. Information technology (IT) managers and other decision-makers can remotely view the actual available spaces and determine appropriate locations for installing additional equipment. Criteria can be based on actual available space and for some embodiments in conjunction with predictive or actual sensed temperatures proximate to the spaces, available cooling capacity, power loads, and available power capacity. In at least one embodiment, the intelligent mounting track system can include a plurality of sensors mounted along the rack surfaces that collectively or individually uniquely identify which spaces are occupied. The information can be communicated to an electronic processor with software to interpret the data and indicate space utilization.

Claims

1. A system for indicating the presence of electronic equipment, shelving, blanking panels, or a combination thereof, comprising:

a rack having a plurality of mounting spaces adapted to mount a plurality of electronic devices, shelving, or blanking panels;

a plurality of sensors coupled to the rack along a length of the rack in alignment with the spaces, at least one sensor having a characteristic uniquely identified with the sensor to differentiate the sensor from other sensors coupled to the rack, and a location of the at least one sensor is known relative to the rack;

at least one communication link coupled to the at least one sensor; and

an electronic processor coupled to the communication link and adapted to receive information from the at least one sensor and determine a location of at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel mounted to the rack by correlation to the location of at least one sensor when the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel is mounted to the rack;

wherein the electronic processor is further adapted to automatically evaluate one or more mounting spaces for mounting an electronic device in the rack based on one or more predefined criteria, the electronic processor configured to exclude a mounting space as a possible location for the electronic device if the mounting space fails the one or more predefined criteria, and include a mounting space as a possible location for the electronic device if the mounting space passes the one or more predefined criteria, the one or more predefined criteria including at least one of a predefined power limit and a predefined thermal limit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a radio frequency identification reader and the electronic device comprises a corresponding radio frequency tag coupled to the electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a magnetic reader adapted to sense changes in a magnetic field associated with mounting the electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor characteristic comprises a unique resistance.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a conductive element coupled to the at least one sensor wherein a change in a conductive path through the conductive element is caused when the electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel is mounted to the rack and activates the at least one sensor.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a thermal sensor adapted to sense a temperature of a volume adjacent the rack and provide temperature input to the electronic processor.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a power usage sensor adapted to sense a power usage of the rack and provide power usage input to the electronic processor.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the power usage sensor comprises a current transformer at least partially coupled around a power feed to the rack and adapted to sense a magnetic field around the power feed dependent on an amount of current therethrough.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transmitter coupled to at least one of the sensors and adapted to wirelessly transmit at least some sensed information to the electronic processor.

10. A method for indicating the presence of electronic equipment, shelving, a blanking panel, or combination thereof, coupled to one or more mounting spaces in a rack, the rack having a plurality of sensors coupled to the rack and corresponding to the spaces along a length of the rack, and at least one conductive element coupled to at least one of the plurality of sensors, the at least one of the plurality of sensors having a known location relative to the rack, comprising:

mounting at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel to at least one of the mounting spaces in the rack;

causing at least one of the sensors to receive information by the mounting of the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel, the at least one sensor having a unique characteristic to differentiate the sensor from other sensors coupled to the rack and the sensor having a known location;

communicating the information about the mounting of the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel to an electronic processor; and

establishing a location of the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel mounted to the rack based on the location of the at least one sensor;

wherein the electronic processor is adapted to automatically evaluate one or more mounting spaces for mounting an electronic device in the rack based on one or more predefined criteria, the electronic processor configured to exclude a mounting space as a possible location for the electronic device if the mounting space fails the one or more predefined criteria, and include a mounting space as a possible location for the electronic device if the mounting space passes the one or more predefined criteria, the one or more predefined criteria including at least one of a predefined power limit and a predefined thermal limit.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

conducting electricity through the at least one conductive element to establish a first mode;

causing the at least one sensor to change a characteristic of a conductive path through the at least one conductive element to establish a second mode when mounting the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel;

providing information on the change in the characteristic to an electronic processor; and

establishing a location of the at least one electronic device, shelving, or blanking panel mounted to the rack based on correlating the change in the characteristic with the location of the at least one sensor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one sensor comprises a unique resistance for the sensor, and the first mode comprises conducting electricity through the conductive element while bypassing the sensor resistance and the second mode comprises conducting electricity through the conductive element with the sensor resistance.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining a temperature of a volume adjacent the rack and comparing the temperature to a temperature of a volume adjacent a second rack having spaces for electronic equipment.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining a power usage of the rack and comparing the power usage to a power usage of a second rack having spaces for electronic equipment, shelving, or blanking panels.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining a power usage of the rack and comparing the power usage to a power usage of a second rack having spaces for electronic equipment, shelving, or blanking panels.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising wirelessly transmitting at least some sensed information on the change in the characteristic.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one sensor comprises an identification reader and providing identification information coupled with the electronic device and receivable by the identification reader when the electronic device is mounted to at least one space associated with the sensor.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the identification reader is a radio frequency identification reader (RFID) and the identification information is associated with an RFID tag coupled with the electronic device.