TECHNICAL FIELD

The following relates to a device, system, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium for managing cables in a telecommunications or data center.

BACKGROUND

Datacenters and telecommunications rooms utilize cabling to communicate large amounts of data. Some data centers can have several hundred thousand cables. It follows that cable management is time consuming, labor intensive work. Today there are two known approaches in widespread use.

A first known approach is manually tracing each cable and documenting the physical location of each cable end (i.e., cable end #1 is located on port 3 of patch panel “A” and cable end #2 is located on port 5 of patch panel “B”). This approach takes time and relies on static documentation which can grow stale quickly without constant updating and attention. If data center infrastructure management (DCIM) or some other cable management software is used, the cable location information must be entered manually.

A second known approach is to use no documentation. That is, cable infrastructure is not documented and instead cables are traced on an “as needed” basis. Too often this tracing is done after an outage occurs which can extend downtime and revenue loss.

Neither of these approaches are optimal as the first takes time and thy: second can prolong time to recovery during a failure. In that regard, data center outages can cause an enterprise to lose valuable resources as well as result in high costs to remediate. A solution that reduces the time spent tracing cables can save money and resources during installation and maintenance, as well as reduce the Mean Time To Recovery (MTTR) during system outages. Anything that can help reduce downtime during an outage can result in significant savings.

A need therefore exists for a cable management device, system, method, and application program designed to trace cables more efficiently as well as quickly audit existing installations and dynamically upload data to cable management systems.

SUMMARY

According to one non-limiting exemplary embodiment described herein, a cable management system is provided. The system comprises a plurality of cables, wherein each of the plurality of cables has a unique identifier associated therewith, and wherein each of the plurality of cables comprises a first barcode and a second barcode, the first barcode including the unique identifier and located proximate a first end of the cable, the second barcode including the unique identifier and located proximate a second end of the cable. The system further comprises a barcode scanner configured to scan barcodes of the plurality of cables, wherein the barcode scanner comprises a clip configured to receive one of the plurality of cables. The system further comprises a mobile computing device comprising a processor, a data storage medium, a communication unit, and a user interface including a display, wherein the mobile computing device is configured to receive via the user interface first end location information for a first one of the plurality of cables, receive from the barcode scanner the first barcode of the first one of the plurality of cables, and save and display the first end location information in association with the unique identifier of the first one of the plurality of cables included in the first barcode.

According to another non-limiting exemplary embodiment described herein, a method for managing a plurality of cables is provided, wherein each of the plurality of cables has a unique identifier associated therewith, and wherein each of the plurality of cables comprises a first barcode and a second barcode, the first barcode including the unique identifier and located proximate a first end of the cable, the second barcode including the unique identifier and located proximate a second end of the cable. The method comprises identifying first end location information for a first one of the plurality of cables, scanning the first barcode of the first one of the plurality of cables with a barcode scanner comprising a clip configured to receive the first one of the plurality of cables, and storing in a data storage medium the first end location information in association with the unique identifier of the first one of the plurality of cables included in the first barcode.

According to yet another non-limiting exemplary embodiment described herein, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored computer executable instructions for managing a plurality of cables is provided, wherein each of the plurality of cables has a unique identifier associated therewith, and wherein each of the plurality of cables comprises a first barcode and a second barcode, the first barcode including the unique identifier and located proximate a first end of the cable, the second barcode including the unique identifier and located proximate a second end of the cable. Execution of the instructions causes a processor to receive first end location information for a first one of the plurality of cables, receive from a barcode scanner the first barcode of the first one of the plurality of cables, and store in a data storage medium the first end location information in association with the unique identifier of the first one of the plurality of cables included in the first barcode.

A detailed description of these and other non-limiting exemplary embodiments of a cable management system, method, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium is set forth below together with the accompanying drawings.

