Busbar connection with side band communications

A system for providing electrical coupling, the system comprising:

• a busbar connector including:
• an insulator body having a first prong and a second prong oriented in a longitudinal direction and proximate one another with a gap therebetween,
• a positive power delivery contact on a first inner surface of the first prong adjacent the gap,
• a negative power delivery contact on a second inner surface of the second prong adjacent the gap, and
• a side band contact positioned on the insulator body and insulated from the positive power delivery contact and the negative power delivery contact by the insulator body;
• and
• a busbar including:
• a positive rail oriented in a vertical direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction,
• a negative rail oriented in the vertical direction and parallel to the positive rail,
• an insulating material positioned between the positive rail and the negative rail, wherein the positive rail, negative rail, and insulating material defines a busbar thickness in a transverse direction perpendicular to the vertical direction and the longitudinal direction and the busbar thickness is approximately the same as the gap between the first prong and the second prong, and
• a side band source oriented parallel to the positive rail and having at least one source contact.

A method for providing data communication in a computing device rack system, the method comprising:

• at a rack manager:
• detecting a presence of a server blade via a side band contact electrically coupled to a side band source of a busbar of the computing device rack system,
• receiving instructions from a networked electronic device, and
• transmitting a side band signal to the server blade through the side band source.