System for determining connection pattern of data transmission ports

The present invention relates to the field of cabling systems and related computer external devices and, in particular, it relates to a system and method for determining the configuration of the interconnection of data ports without the use of special connecting cables or panel panels.

The problems of monitoring the configuration of the interconnection between different ports on the local network are well known to experienced specialists. At least one such system that solves this problem is described in US Pat. 5,483,467 entitled Typing Scanner. This patent discloses a dial pad scanner that automatically and continuously reads the connection diagram of various ports, such as computer ports and user ports. In a system of this type, the connection between the ports is provided by connecting cables or, alternatively, by internal connection equipment in the dial panels, for example, in the wireless dial panel of RIT Technologies Ltd. from Tel Aviv, Israel.

In this type of system, to determine the configuration of the mutual connection of various ports, a conductor is needed to connect the ports and signal the scanner to display the connection status of a specific port. It is currently quite difficult to create such a conductor, since most modern data cables used to connect various devices must meet a specific predefined industry standard. Such a device, for example, is a standard RJ45 cable with eight wires in each cable, each of which is configured to connect to an RJ45 port. There is no loose wire to scan the interconnect.

Therefore, in known scanning systems, ports must be connected to each other through a panel, which requires a special connecting cable, or internal connection equipment in panel panels. In any case, the ports cannot be connected directly using standard cables. Although there is an urgent need and desirability of having a scanning system that can use standard cables, so far the industry has not been able to provide such a system to the user.

The aim of the present invention is to develop a system for monitoring and determining the connection ports, which eliminated the disadvantages of the existing system described above.

More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for monitoring and determining port connections that does not require special typeset panels or connecting cables.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for monitoring and determining port connections using standard connection cables.

The present invention defines and continuously monitors the configuration of the connection of data ports connected by multicore cables without the use of special connecting cables or panel panels. In order to electronically determine the connection between two ports, you will need an electrical conductor connecting these ports. Although this principle is well known, at present, when several standard cables are used, for example, RJ11 and RJ45, it is difficult to create such a special conductor for the purpose of scanning the connection, because each conductor in this cable is used to perform a standard function, which can interfere with scan interconnect operations.

This interconnect monitoring system provides for a special conductor that can be connected to an existing cable. This conductor interacts with the adapter board, which connects to the port to which the cable should be connected. To provide an additional point of contact for the scanning operation, an adapter housing is provided that is attached to the RJ45 plug. The adapter housing is attached to the plug at both ends of the cable. An additional contact point for the scanning operation is created through an external contact located outside the adapter housing. An external conductor connects an external pin contact at each end of the cable so that the contacts at each respective end are electrically connected to each other.

To provide a contact point for the external contact of the adapter housing in the port assembly, an adapter board is installed above the contact slots, each connector having a socket contact. The socket contact is positioned so that when the RJ45 connector with the adapter body is inserted into the socket, the contact of the adapter body is electrically connected to the socket contact of the adapter board.

Throughout the system, the adapter board is connected to the output and input modules. The output module contains many output drivers, and the receiving module contains many latch circuits (hereinafter referred to as the latch) (other similar electronic elements can be used instead of latches). Each of the socket contacts is connected with only one output driver and with one latch. The output and input modules are connected to a microprocessor, which, in turn, is connected to a communication interface. The system can be connected to a local network or to a computer to transmit information related to the configuration of the connections.

Both the output and input modules can be implemented using standard integrated circuits. The main function of the output module is to provide multiple output drivers associated with the contacts of the adapter and sending signals to these contacts at the command of the microprocessor. The main function of the input module is to create many latches (or other similar elements), which are also connected to the contacts and receive the signal sent by the output drivers. The communication interface can also be implemented using standard elements available on the market and suitable for creating an interface between the microprocessor and the local network and electronic devices.

Now we describe the operation of this system. The microprocessor has one element, designated as the first output driver, and a socket contact connected to it and designated as the first contact. The latch in the input module connected to the first contact is indicated as the first latch. The port corresponding to the first socket pin is considered the first port. Another driver is previously designated as a second driver, and its corresponding socket contact is indicated as a second contact, and its corresponding latch is designated as a second latch. The same designation scheme applies to the third, fourth, fifth and other groups of shaper / contact / latch, so that all groups have a unique designation.

Initially, all socket contacts are set to low voltage, and the output module does not send any signal to them. To control the connection routes of various ports, the microprocessor issues a command to the output driver, designated as the first, which gives a pulse signal to the socket contact, which is designated as the first contact. At the same time, a high level is set at the first socket contact and, accordingly, a high level is also set at the first latch of the input module. After sending the signal, the microprocessor scans the input module to determine the latch having a high level. If a high level is present only on the first latch, the microprocessor concludes that the connection between the first port and the other port is not established. However, if a port other than the first port shows a high level state, for example, port seven, the microprocessor concludes that this port is indeed connected to port seven. Once the connection state of port one is determined, this result is written to memory, and the same process is repeated for port two, and so on, until the connection status of all ports is determined.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a current RJ45 cable that can be used to work with the present system.

FIG. 1B is a perspective view of an RJ45 cable shown in FIG. 1A, which is connected to the adapter housing of the present invention.

FIG. 1C is a separate perspective view of an adapter housing of the present invention adapted for an RJ45 cable plug.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a plurality of RJ45 sockets connected to an adapter board of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a simplified schematic illustration of a real connection control system.

FIG. 4 is a simplified schematic diagram showing the relationship between output drivers, socket contacts, and receive latches.

In FIG. 5A, 5B, 5C show various other standard cables that can be used in the present system.

In FIG. 6A, 6B, 6C show various other standard cables that can be used in the present system.

In FIG. 7A, 7B, 7C show various other standard cables that can be used in the present system.

FIG. 8 is a simplified schematic representation of the proposed connection control system, including an optional diagnostic pen.

FIG. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram that shows the relationship between output drivers, socket contacts, receiving latches, and input pen latches.

In FIG. 10 shows an embodiment in which the external contact is a spring-loaded rod.

In FIG. 11 shows an embodiment in which an external contact is placed in a plug.

In FIG. 12 shows an adapter board made of curved tape.

FIG. 13 is a simplified schematic diagram of a true compound control system including an optional diagnostic pen and liquid crystal display (LCD) elements.

FIG. 14 is a simplified schematic diagram that shows the relationship between output drivers, socket contacts, pen input latch, and LCD drivers.

In order to determine the connection between two ports by electronic means, an electrical conductor is required to connect these ports to each other. Although this principle is well known, at present, when many standard multicore cables are used, for example, RJ11 and RJ45, it is difficult to create such a special conductor for the purpose of scanning the connection, because each conductor in this cable is used for a specific standard function, which can cause interference during the operation of scanning connections. Although you can use any core of the cable for the scanning operation, this will require additional circuitry to separate the signals used for scanning purposes and the signals used for other purposes, for example, for data transmission. Moreover, in many cases it is simply impossible to effectively use the existing core or conductor for this purpose. In this system, connection control is provided by a special conductor, which can be connected to an existing cable. This conductor interacts with the adapter board, which is connected to the port to which the cable should be connected. Although a specific cable / port combination will be shown in the description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, based on a common standard such as RJ45, it should be borne in mind that this is for illustrative purposes only and does not limit the scope of the present invention to this illustrative example.

Turning now to FIG. 1a, which shows a standard RJ45 cable 3 containing a plug connector 5. Although, for example, in FIG. 1a shows only one end of the cable, it should be understood that a similar connector is provided on the other end of the cable. RJ45 type 5 plug has eight standard 6 pins.

In order to create an additional contact point for the scanning operation, an adapter body 7 is provided (FIG. 1c), which is attached to the RJ45 plug, as shown in FIG. 1b. The adapter housing is attached to plug 5 at both ends of cable 3 (although only one is shown in the figure). An additional contact point for the scanning operation is provided through an external contact 8 located outside the adapter 7. An external wire 9 connects the external contact 8 of the plug 5 to each end of the cable 3 so that the contact 8 at each respective end is electrically connected to each other.

In FIG. 2 shows a plurality of RJ45 sockets, which are standard sockets that mate with a standard RJ45 plug. The sockets can be ports for network equipment of type 10 of the Base-T socket, a dial-up panel of an office telephone exchange and a telephone with push-button dialing, or can be part of a dial-up panel, although a special dial-up panel is not required for the successful operation of this system. In order to provide a contact point for the external contact 8 of the adapter housing 7, an adapter board 14 is provided above the sockets 12, in which there is a female contact 15 for each socket 12. The female contact 15 is installed so that when the RJ45 type plug 5 has an adapter body 7, as shown in FIG. 1B inserted into socket 12 in FIG. 2, contact 8 of the adapter housing 7 is electrically coupled to a female contact 15 of the adapter board 14. Although in this drawing the adapter board 14 has a plurality of female contacts 15, it is quite possible, and sometimes even desirable, to use an adapter board 14 that has only one female contact that is mounted on one insulated socket.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram of the described system 1. The adapter board 14 in FIG. 2 is connected to an output module 18 and an input module 19. As shown in detail in FIG. 4, the output driver module 18 has many output drivers 20, and the receiver module 19 has many latches 25 (other similar electronic devices can be used instead of latches). Each of the socket contacts 15 is associated with one output driver 20 and with one latch 25. The output module 18 and the input module 19 are connected to a microprocessor 21, which, in turn, is connected to a communication interface 22. System 1 can be connected to a local network 23 or to a computer 24 for transmitting information regarding the establishment of communication.

Both the output module and the input module can be made on the basis of standard integrated circuits. The main function of the output module 18 is to provide a variety of output shapers 20, which are connected to the contacts of the adapter 15 and transmit a signal to the contacts 15 at the command of the microprocessor 21. The main function of the input module 19 is to provide a plurality of latches 25 (or other similar devices) that also go to pins 15 and receive a signal sent by the input drivers. The communication interface 22 can also be performed using standard publicly available devices for communicating the interface with the microprocessor 21, the local network 23 and electronic devices.

We now describe the system 1 in more detail, with the adapter board 14 shown in FIG. 3 is located above the port slots (not shown in FIG. 3, but shown in FIG. 2). The microprocessor 21 pre-assigns one output driver as the first driver, and the socket contact with which it is connected as the first contact. The latch in the input module 19, which is associated with the designated first contact, is defined as the first latch. The port corresponding to the first socket contact is considered as the first port. Another shaper is defined as the second shaper and its corresponding socket contact is designated as the second contact, and its corresponding latch is designated as the second latch. Exactly the same notation scheme applies to the third, fourth, fifth and subsequent groups of the shaper / contact / latch so that all groups are uniquely defined. Of course, such designations are somewhat arbitrary and specifying a specific number or scheme is not necessary if individual groups are uniquely monitored by microprocessor 21.

Initially, all the socket contacts 15 are in a low state and at this level the output module 18 does not send any signal to the contacts. To control the connection of various ports, the microprocessor 21 sends a command to the first output driver so that the latter generates a pulse signal to the socket contact 15, which is determined by the microprocessor 21 as the first contact. In this case, the first socket contact goes into a high state and, therefore, the first latch of the input module 19 also goes into a high state. After sending the specified signal, the microprocessor 21 scans the input module 19 for a latch having a high level state. If the first latch indicates a high level, the microprocessor 21 concludes that no real connection has been made between the first port and the other port. However, if another port other than the first port (port one) indicates a high level state, for example, port seven, then microprocessor 21 concludes that port 1 is correctly connected to port seven. After the connection state of port one is determined, the result is stored in memory, and the same process is repeated for port two, and so on, until the connection status of all ports is determined.

Although another scanning scheme may be used in the present system, the scheme described above is used in a preferred embodiment of the invention. The advantage of this scheme is that it provides a connection from any port to any other port. This scanning system is different from a dial pad, where one panel should be labeled as an input panel and the other panel is labeled an output panel, and the cable should be connected to the port from the output panel to the input panel port. A cable cannot connect, for example, an input panel port to another port on the same input panel. This feature is particularly useful for the present invention, since it does not require any special typesetting panels, and the ports can be arranged arbitrarily, and not in any particular order.

In some cases, the user may want to know the data about a particular data port, which is made in accordance with the present invention. In known systems, if the port was not properly marked on the slot site, it was difficult for the user to establish the authenticity of the port without fully tracing the cable connected to this port to its source. To provide a solution to this problem, the present system may optionally include a diagnostic pen, which can assist in identifying the port by simply contacting the socket contact corresponding to the port that the user wishes to identify.

A block diagram of the present system including such a diagnostic pen is shown in FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 8, pen 80 has an electrically conductive tip 82. Tip 82 is electrically connected to the input module of pen 84. The input module of pen 84 is connected to microprocessor 21. As shown in more detail in FIG. 9, the pen input module 84 mainly includes one latch 27 (or other similar device) for receiving an electrical signal.

In order to determine which socket contact 15 is electrically connected to the tip 82 of the diagnostic pen 80, the microprocessor 21 continuously monitors the status of the input module of the pen 84. As explained above, the output module continuously sends an electrical signal to each of the socket contacts 15. Since each of the socket contacts Pin 15 is uniquely associated with the address of the output module 18, each socket pin 15 is unambiguously traced. Therefore, microprocessor 21 can always unambiguously determine to which socket contact 15 an electrical signal was sent by output module 18 at any given moment. Initially, when the tip 82 of the pen 80 has not yet come into contact with any of the female contacts, the input module of the pen 84 is in a low state because it has not received any electrical signal. However, when the tip 82 touches one of the socket contacts 15, the input module of the pen 84 goes high, determining which socket 15 receives the signal from the output module 18 when the input module of the pen 84 goes high, and the microprocessor 21 can determine which female contact 15 is electrically connected to pen tip 82. In this way, a data port corresponding to this particular socket contact 15 is determined.

To facilitate identification of data transmission ports and provide greater flexibility, the present system may further include liquid crystal display modules (LCDs) 100 for each of the ports, as shown in FIG. 13. LCD modules 100 are installed adjacent to the data ports and are connected to the liquid crystal display module 102. A detailed wiring diagram is shown in FIG. 14. The LCD module 102 mainly includes a plurality of output drivers 28 that are individually connected to the LCD modules 100. The LCD modules 100 display information about a particular port or a number of ports. For example, an LCD module may indicate a device that is connected to a port with a username, IP address, etc. An LCD can be used in conjunction with a pen 80 in such a way that by touching the pen 80 of the socket contact of a particular port, the microprocessor sends port information to the LCD module corresponding to the socket contact that is in contact with the pen. LCD modules 100 can also work in an interactive mode, when the user can select various options based on a simple menu such as a YES / NO scheme, in which the user can select his choice by touching the socket contact 80 with a stylus (or using a separate predefined module contact area LCD). Although the LCD modules 100 are shown as separate elements in the drawing, it is understood that an entire line of LCDs can be used.

Although the present invention has been described using the RJ45 standard, those skilled in the art understand that the invention can be practiced using other existing standards. Some such examples are shown in FIG. 5, 6 and 7, where the currently used SC, ST type connectors and bayonet type connectors are inserted into the adapter connector, and their respective ports are provided with an adapter board.

In FIG. 5, 5A, 5B, and 5C, the standard connector SC 30 is equipped with an adapter housing 31 having a contact 32 that is included in the connector SC 33. In addition, the sockets of the connector SC 35 are located on the adapter board 34 with the contact points of the adapter 36.

In FIG. 6, 6A, 6B, and 6C, the standard connector ST 40 is equipped with an adapter body 41 having a pin 42 that is included in the connector ST 44. Similarly, the sockets of the connector 45 are located on the adapter board 44 with the contact points of the adapter 46.

In FIG. 7, 7A, 7B, and 7C, the standard bayonet connector 50 is equipped with an adapter body 51 having a pin 52 that fits into the bayonet connector 55. Similarly, the bayonet connector sockets 55 are located on the adapter board 54 with the contact points of the adapter 56.

In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the external contact 6 of the adapter housing 7 (as shown in FIG. 1c) is made in the form of a contact pin 60, as shown in FIG. 10. In this embodiment, the pin 60 slides into the sleeve 62, which is located inside the adapter housing 64. The contact pin 60 is supported by a spring 66, which is located inside the sleeve 62 and tension the pin 60 when it is pressed in the direction shown by arrow 65. The tension of the spring 66 ensures reliable contact of the pin 60 with the socket contact 15 of the adapter board 14 (Fig. 2). Those skilled in the art will understand that although a spring is shown in the drawing, this spring 66 may be replaced by other devices that can provide the necessary tension to the pin 60.

In another embodiment of the present invention, an external contact is placed inside the standard plug itself. An example of such an embodiment is shown in FIG. 11. Here, the pin 70 is located in the RJ45 plug 72 itself. As in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the contact pin 70 slides into the sleeve 74 and is also spring loaded with a spring 76. However, it is understood that it is possible to make an external contact without the sleeve 74 and the spring 76. In this embodiment, the socket contact is placed directly inside the socket and comes into contact with the contact pin 70.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, a flexible tape may be used to create an adapter board 90, as shown in FIG. 12, which is an embodiment of an adapter board. The adapter board 90 may be provided with an adhesive layer and glued next to the slots. The adapter board 90 includes a main body 92 and an upper portion 93, which are made of flexible tape, which is a common substrate material, which is now used as the basis for electronic circuits. The main body 92 has a plurality of contacts 94, which are located in accordance with the diversity of the data ports and next to which should be placed the adapter board. As shown in FIG. 12, two rows of pins can be provided to accommodate two rows of ports located above and below the adapter board 90. However, an adapter board having only one row can be provided. Each pin 94 is connected by a conductor that terminates in the conductor board 96 in the upper part 93. The conductor boards 96 provide a convenient way to electrically couple the adapter board 90 to the output 18 and input 19 modules.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the female contact is made in the form of a port or socket, which is tightly coupled with an external contact.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the adapter housing is combined with a standard multicore cable.

The present invention may be embodied in another specific form without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The options disclosed herein may be considered in all respects as illustrative and not limiting the scope of the invention, which, together with all changes and additions, is covered by the following claims.