James Patrick Trice

RFID tag readability for tracking fiber optic connections in Data Centers

Data Centers have a very large number of optical fiber cables and connections, and there is a need to track the connectivity of these to assure proper network interconnection among the servers, switches, routers, and storage equipment. RFID tags integrated into the optical fiber cable connectors and the adapters into which they fit can be used to accomplish this tracking automatically. For patch panel fields, the resulting density of RFID tags is very high, but by proper antenna design it is possible to read all 456 UHF RFID tags in a typical patch panel field with 6 dB power margin, even at densities as great as 4.2 tagged components per square inch of patch panel surface area.

Automatic discovery of fiber optic structured cabling component locations and connectivity

The use of RFID tags integrated into fiber optic structured cabling components enables network operators to automatically discover and track the location and connectivity of their cabling infrastructure in real time. A laboratory feasibility demonstration focused on data center applications illustrates the potential capabilities.