Remote inventory of devices
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsPrasad Miriyala, Chandrodaya Prasad, Arthur G. Howarth, Roland Saville
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Mechanisms are provided to inventory groupings of components, e.g., the physical chassis of a networking device as well as the various cards, modules, and/or blades inserted within the chassis. The inventory may be performed remotely. Some implementations also provide mechanisms to determine remotely the physical location of the asset. Preferred implementations of the invention can provide such functionality regardless of whether a main power supply of the physical device is on or off. Some embodiments of the invention employ radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology.
Claims26
An apparatus comprising:
- a support structure;
- means for communicating with a network;
- a plurality of components disposed within the support structure, each component having an associated radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tag;
- and
- an RFID reader having a read range approximately corresponding with a volume of the support structure and configured to do the following:
- read the RFID tag associated with each of the plurality of components;
- aggregate component information from tag reads;
- and
- transmit aggregated component information via the network interface.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a support structure;
- a plurality of components disposed within the support structure;
- a first non-volatile memory;
- a processor configured for communication with the plurality of components and configured to store component data regarding the plurality of components in the first non-volatile memory;
- means for communicating with a network;
- and
- an aggregation device configured for communication with the first non-volatile memory and configured to do the following:
- receive component data from the first non-volatile memory;
- aggregate the component data;
- and
- transmit aggregated component data via the network interface.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a support structure;
- a plurality of components disposed within the support structure;
- means for communicating with a network;
- and
- an aggregation device configured for communication with the plurality of components, the aggregation device further configured to do the following:
- query each of the plurality of components;
- aggregate the component data;
- and
- transmit aggregated component data via the network interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.