Radio frequency identification triangulation systems for communications patching systems and related methods of determining patch cord connectivity information
View Patent ↗Methods of determining patch cord connectivity information include receiving, at each of a plurality of RFID readers, a signal from an RFID tag that is associated with a first patch cord and then, identifying the one of a plurality of connector ports that the first patch cord is connected to based at least in part on respective strengths of the signals received at each of the plurality of RFID readers. RFID triangulation systems and methods of calibrating such systems are also provided.
1. A method of determining patch cord connectivity information, the method comprising:
receiving a first signal from an RFID tag that is associated with a first patch cord at a first RFID antenna;
comparing the strength of the received first signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of a plurality of connector ports at the first RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received first signal;
receiving a second signal from the RFID tag at a second RFID antenna;
comparing the strength of the received second signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports at the second RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received second signal;
receiving a third signal from the RFID tag at a third RFID antenna, wherein the identification of the one of the plurality of connector ports that the first patch cord is connected to is based on the respective strengths of the received first, second and third signals
comparing the strength of the received third signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports at the third RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received third signal; and
identifying the one of the plurality of connector ports that the first patch cord is connected to based on the identification of the one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received first signal and the identification of the one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received second signal and the identification of the one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received third signal.
2. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising transmitting an excitation signal to the RFID tag in order to cause the RFID tag to emit a transmitted signal, wherein the first, second and third signals are the received versions of the transmitted signal that are received at the first, second and third RFID antennas, respectively.
3. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:
transmitting a first excitation signal to the RFID tag in order to cause the RFID tag to emit a first transmitted signal, wherein the first signal is a received version of the first transmitted signal that is received at the first RFID antenna;
transmitting a second excitation signal to the RFID tag in order to cause the RFID tag to emit a second transmitted signal, wherein the second signal is a received version of the second transmitted signal that is received at the second RFID antenna; and
transmitting a third excitation signal to the RFID tag in order to cause the RFID tag to emit a third transmitted signal, wherein the third signal is a received version of the third transmitted signal that is received at the third RFID antenna.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of connector ports are within a detection zone, and wherein the first, second and third RFID antennas are arranged about at least part of a periphery of the detection zone.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the RFID tag comprises one of a plurality of RFID tags that are within the detection zone, and wherein the method further comprises using an arbitration procedure to select one of the plurality of RFID tags as the RFID tag that emits a transmitted signal that is received at the first RFID antenna as the first signal.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the one of the plurality of connector ports that the first patch cord is connected to further comprises;
determining that none of the plurality of connector ports have pre-stored signal strength data at each of the first, second and third antennas that closely matches the respective received first, second and third signals; and
adjusting the strength of the received first, second and third signals; and
comparing the adjusted strengths of the received first, second and third signals to the pre-stored signal strength data.
7. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising performing a calibration operation prior to determining the patch cord connectivity information, the calibration operation comprising:
(a) inserting an RFID-enabled patch cord into a first of the plurality of connector ports;
(b) transmitting a signal over the first RFID antenna in order to cause an RFID tag on the RFID-enabled patch cord to emit a calibration signal that is received at each of the first, second and third RFID antennas;
(c) measuring the strength of the calibration signal received at each of the first, second and third RFID antennas;
(d) storing the measured strengths of the calibration signal at each of the first, second and third REID antennas as the pre-stored signal strength data for the first of the plurality of connector ports; and
(e) repeating (a) through (d) for each of the plurality of connector ports in order to obtain the pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports.
8. A method of determining which connector port in a connector port array an RFID enabled patch cord having an RFID tag associated therewith is connected to, the method comprising:
transmitting one or more signals from an RFID tag;
receiving a first signal at a first RFID antenna, a second signal at a second RFID antenna and a third signal at a third RFID antenna, wherein each of the first, second and third signals comprise a received version of at least one of the signals transmitted by the RFID tag; and
performing triangulation by (a) comparing the strength of the received first signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the connector ports in the connector port array at the first RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received first signal, (b) comparing the strength of the received second signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the connector ports in the connector port array at the second RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received second signal, and (c) comparing the strength of the received third signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the connector ports in the connector port array at the third RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received third signal in order to identify a connector port in the connector port array that the RFID enabled patch cord associated with the RFID tag is connected to.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first, second and third signals each comprise a received version of the same signal that is transmitted by the RFID tag.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first, second and third signals each comprise a received version of a different one of signals that are transmitted by the RFID tag.
11. A system for identifying which one of a plurality of connector ports a first patch cord is connected to, comprising:
a first RFID antenna;
a second RFID antenna;
a third RFID antenna;
one or more devices that are configured to measure the strength of signals received at the first, second and third RFID antennas;
a controller that is configured to determine the location of an RFID tag associated with the first patch cord based on comparisons of the measured strengths of the signals received at the first, second and third RFID antennas to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports at each of the first, second and third RFID antennas.
12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a database of information that includes, for each of the plurality of connector ports, an expected received signal strength at each of the first, second and third RFID antennas for an RFID tag that is connected to the respective one of the connector ports.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the RFID tag supports an arbitration procedure.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the controller further logs patch cord interconnections with the connector ports.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of connector ports comprises a subset of the connector ports on a plurality of network switches that are within a first detection zone.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the number of connector ports within the first detection zone exceeds the number of RFID antennas associated with the first detection zone.
17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the system further comprises a second plurality of connector ports that are part of a second detection zone, and wherein at least one of the first, second or third RFID antennas is shared between the first detection zone and the second detection zone.
18. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising performing a calibration operation prior to determining the patch cord connectivity information, the calibration operation comprising:
(a) inserting an RFID-enabled patch cord into a first of the plurality of connector ports;
(b) transmitting a first signal over the first RFID antenna in order to cause an RFID tag on the RFID-enabled patch cord to emit a first calibration signal that is received at the first RFID antenna;
(c) measuring the strength of the first calibration signal received at the first RFID antenna;
(d) transmitting a second signal over the second RFID antenna in order to cause the RFID tag on the RFID-enabled patch cord to emit a second calibration signal that is received at the second RFID antenna;
(e) measuring the strength of the second calibration signal received at the second RFID antenna;
(f) transmitting a third signal over the third RFID antenna in order to cause the RFID tag on the RFID-enabled patch cord to emit a third calibration signal that is received at the third RFID antenna;
(g) measuring the strength of the third calibration signal received at the third RFID antenna;
(h) storing the measured strengths of the first, second and third calibration signals as the pre-stored signal strength data for the first of the plurality of connector ports; and
(i) repeating (a) through (h) for each of the plurality of connector ports in order to obtain the pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports.