Active wall outlet
AssigneeMediamax, Inc.
InventorsThomas F. McNamara, Soto D. Mareskes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An active wall outlet providing media and network switching at a desktop location. The active wall outlet facilitates implementing a structured cabling system having a backbone portion and a horizontal portion that employ optical cable as the primary transport media for a building, campus, and/or enterprise LAN. The active outlet may can be powered from a remote location providing network information and/or circuit switched data to devices located at the desktop.
Claims95
An active wall outlet comprising:
- at least one optical connector;
- a plurality of ports;
- a transceiver configured to convert between optical signals and electrical signals, the transceiver capable of transmitting and receiving optical signals to and from at least one optical connector;
- and
- a switch coupled to the transceiver and at least some of the plurality of ports, the switch configured to switch electrical signals between the transceiver and at least some of the plurality of ports.
A method of providing network information to a desktop comprising acts of:
- providing at least one optical signal to an active outlet having a plurality of ports from a network over at least one first optical cable;
- converting the at least one optical signal to at least one electrical signal at the active outlet;
- and
- switching the at least one electrical signal amongst the plurality of ports at the active outlet.
A structured cabling system providing optical media to a plurality of desktops, the structured cabling system comprising:
- at least one network switch located remote from the plurality of desktops, the at least one network switch configured to provide optical network information over at least one first optical cable;
- and
- at least one active wall outlet remote from the network switch having a plurality of ports, the active outlet capable of receiving the optical network information and configured to convert the optical network information to electrical network information and switch the electrical network information between the plurality of ports.
A structured cabling system for a Local Area Network (LAN) comprising:
- a backbone portion providing optical network information over at least one optical cable;
- a horizontal portion connected to the backbone portion by at least one first optical cable, the horizontal portion capable of receiving the optical network information from the at least one first optical cable and providing the optical network information over a plurality of second optical cables;
- and
- a plurality of desktop locations connected to the horizontal portion by at least one of the plurality of second optical cables, each desktop location including an active wall outlet capable of receiving the optical network information over the at least one second optical capable, converting the optical network information into electrical network information and switching the electrical network information amongst a plurality of active wall outlet ports.
The structured cabling system of 92, wherein the central equipment room includes at least one patch panel and wherein the at least one first optical cable extends between the at least one network switch and the at least one patch panel and the plurality of second optical cables extend between the at least one patch panel and the plurality of desktop locations such that the backbone portion and the horizontal portion form a collapsed backbone structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.