System and method for automatic determination of the physical location of data center equipment

• US 8,737,168 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2009
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sunbird Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Raritan Americas Incorporated (Legrand SA)
• Inventors: Somasundaram, Siva, Malik, Naim R., Wang, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): PIHULIC, DANIEL T
• Application Number:
  US12/582,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20100214873A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,680 Days
• Field of Search: 367/127, 367/125
• US Class Current: 367/127
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/22 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1498 Resource management, Optimisation arrangements, e.g. configuration, identification, tracking, physical location thermal management H05K7/20836

Abstract

The invention is directed to a system and method for automatic discovery of the physical location of at least one device in a data center, the device having an associated ultrasonic emitter. The system generally includes a plurality of ultrasonic detectors having known locations in the data center. A controller initiates the generation of an ultrasonic signal from an ultrasonic emitter associated with a device under test. Time of arrival circuitry generates time of arrival information associated with each ultrasonic detector based on the time of receipt of the ultrasonic signal. The controller determines the location of the device under test based on the known location of the ultrasonic detectors within the data center and the time of arrival information associated with each ultrasonic detector.

Claims

1. A system for automatic discovery of the physical location of at least one device in a data center, the system including multiple devices each having an associated ultrasonic emitter that generates an ultrasonic signal, the system comprising:

a first set of ultrasonic transducers having known locations in the data center,

a first controller associated with the first set of ultrasonic transducers wherein the first controller initiates the generation of the ultrasonic signal from the ultrasonic emitter associated with the device,

time of arrival circuitry that generates time of arrival information based on the time of receipt of the ultrasonic signal at each ultrasonic transducer in the first set of ultrasonic transducers,

wherein the first controller determines the relative location of the device based on the known location of the first set of ultrasonic transducers within the data center and the time of arrival information associated with each ultrasonic transducer in the first set of ultrasonic transducers,

wherein the first controller is operable to generate a map of the location of the device in the data center based on the time of arrival information derived from the ultrasonic signal generated by each ultrasonic emitter, and

wherein the first controller is further ca able to decode the ultrasonic signal to retrieve data representing at least one of a device serial number, a device model number and a device status.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least two ultrasonic transducers in the first set of transducers are housed in a transducer module.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the transducer module also includes power distribution circuitry.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the transducer module also includes environmental monitoring circuitry.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the ultrasonic emitter is a speaker.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the first controller is located in the transducer module.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein the first controller is located remotely from the transducer module.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the time of arrival circuitry is located in the transducer module.

9. The system of claim 2 wherein the time of arrival circuitry is located remotely from the transducer module.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the time of arrival circuitry comprises at least one counter.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the time of arrival circuitry utilizes the phase difference between the ultrasonic signal received from at least two detectors.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the map contains at least one of text and graphics wherein the map includes the relative location of each device having an associated ultrasonic emitter.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the map contains at least one of text and graphics and wherein map contains at least one of the device serial number, the device model number and the device status derived from the encoded ultrasonic signal.

14. The system of claim 1 comprising at least one supplemental transducer tied to at least one landmark in the data center.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the map contains the relative location of the at least one supplemental transducer.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the map contains absolute locations of each of the multiple devices having an associated ultrasonic emitter, the absolute locations being derived from the relative locations of each device.

17. The system of claim 1 comprising:

a second set of ultrasonic transducers having known locations in the data center,

a second controller associated with the second set of ultrasonic transducers

second time of arrival circuitry that generates time of arrival information based on the time of receipt of the ultrasonic signal at each ultrasonic transducer in the second set of ultrasonic transducers,

wherein the first set of ultrasonic detectors are utilized to generate ultrasonic signals, and wherein the second controller determines the relative location of each of the transducers in the first set of transducers based on the known location of the second set of ultrasonic transducers within the data center and the time of arrival information associated with each ultrasonic transducer in the second set of ultrasonic transducers.

18. A method for automatic discovery of the physical location of at least one device in the data center, the device having an associated ultrasonic emitter, with a first set of ultrasonic transducers having known locations in the data center, the method comprising the steps of:

activating the first set of ultrasonic transducers having known locations in the data center to receive ultrasonic signals,

emitting an ultrasonic signal from the associated ultrasonic emitter of the at least one device, wherein the ultrasonic signal is encoded with data representing at least one of a device serial number, a device model number and a device status,

receiving the ultrasonic signal from the associated emitter of the at least one device by the first set of ultrasonic transducers,

decoding the ultrasonic signal to retrieve data representing at least one of a device serial number, a device model number and a device status,

capturing the time of arrival information based on the receipt of the ultrasonic signal from the associated ultrasonic emitter by the first set of ultrasonic transducers, and

computing the position of the at least one device based on the time of arrival information and the known location of the first set of ultrasonic transducers.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the data center includes multiple devices each having an associated ultrasonic emitter, further comprising:

deactivating the first set of ultrasonic transducers,

repeating activating, emitting, receiving, capturing, and computing for each of the at least one devices in the data center having an associated ultrasonic emitter.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising generating a map of the positions of each of the at least one devices in the data center based on computing the position of each of the at least one device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one transducer is associated with the at least one landmark in the data center.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising converting the positions of each of the at least one device to an absolute position based on the absolute location of at least one landmark.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the map contains at least one of text and graphics.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

encoding data in the ultrasonic signal.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising generating a map of the positions of each of the at least one devices of the data center based on computing the positions of each of the least one devices wherein the map contains at least one of a device serial number, device model number and device status derived from the encoded ultrasonic signal.

26. The method of 18, wherein the computing the position of the at least one device is performed by a first controller.