WO2014195846A1 - System and method for interconnecting objects with optical fibers - Google Patents

System and method for interconnecting objects with optical fibers Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2014195846A1
WO2014195846A1 PCT/IB2014/061888 IB2014061888W WO2014195846A1 WO 2014195846 A1 WO2014195846 A1 WO 2014195846A1 IB 2014061888 W IB2014061888 W IB 2014061888W WO 2014195846 A1 WO2014195846 A1 WO 2014195846A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
state
port
current
optical fiber
ports
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IB2014/061888
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Huaisheng ZHU
Zhaoyang Tong
Weili Zhang
Original Assignee
Tyco Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Tyco Electronics Uk Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Tyco Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Tyco Electronics Uk Ltd filed Critical Tyco Electronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.
Publication of WO2014195846A1 publication Critical patent/WO2014195846A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04Q—SELECTING
    • H04Q1/00—Details of selecting apparatus or arrangements
    • H04Q1/02—Constructional details
    • H04Q1/13—Patch panels for monitoring, interconnecting or testing circuits, e.g. patch bay, patch field or jack field; Patching modules
    • H04Q1/135—Patch panels for monitoring, interconnecting or testing circuits, e.g. patch bay, patch field or jack field; Patching modules characterized by patch cord details
    • H04Q1/136—Patch panels for monitoring, interconnecting or testing circuits, e.g. patch bay, patch field or jack field; Patching modules characterized by patch cord details having patch field management or physical layer management arrangements

Definitions

  • Embodiments of the present invention relates to a system and a method for correctly interconnecting objects or modules of the same object with optical fibers, more particularly, relates to a system and a method for intelligently and correctly connecting optical fibers, for example, connecting distribution fibers of optical fiber distributing equipments, in quantities.
  • the optical fibers are identified depended on serial numbers on tags adhered to the optical fibers or serial numbers printed on the optical fibers.
  • ports to be connected with the optical fibers are identified depended on serial numbers on tags adhered to the ports or serial numbers printed on the ports. In some conditions, there may be no serial number on the ports, and the ports are identified depended on only the order of arranging them.
  • an operator for finishing a connection operation of optical fibers, an operator has to perform the following steps of: firstly, looking up a fiber-port distribution table; secondly, visually identifying serial numbers of optical fibers; and finally, looking for ports corresponding to the optical fibers based on the table and correctly inserting the optical fibers into the respective ports.
  • it needs the operator to carefully identifying the serial numbers, causing the vision tiredness of the operator.
  • the serial numbers may become blurred or damaged due to the severe application condition and may be illegible for the operator.
  • lighting in the operation field may disadvantageously affect the operator to identify and determine the serial numbers.
  • An identification device adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, as a wireless communication technology, can identify specific targets and read and write data correlated to the specific targets with wireless communication signals. As a result, it is not necessary to build up a physical electrical or optical connection between the identification device and the specific targets.
  • the RFID identification device has a reader. The reader can transmit a wireless electromagnetic field toward the RFID tag adhered on the target, and the RFID identification device can identify the RFID tag depended on an interaction of the wireless electromagnetic field with the RFID tag, obtain the data from the RFID tag and transmit the data to a target device. In this way, the RFID identification device can automatically identify and track the physical position of the target.
  • the RFID tag may be configured to get energy from the electromagnetic field transmitted from the reader and does not have a battery therein.
  • the RFID tag may be provided with a power source therein and can actively transmit a radio wave (which can be adjusted to the electromagnetic field).
  • the RFID contains data electronically stored therein, and the reliable identification distance for the RFID may be up to several meters.
  • the RFID tag is different from a bar code tag because the RFID can be not only provided on a surface of the target to be identified/tracked, but also embedded inside the target to be identified/tracked.
  • the present invention has been made to overcome or alleviate at least one aspect of the above mentioned disadvantages.
  • the ports of objects can be quickly and correctly interconnected in a manner of blind plug installation.
  • a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers comprising:
  • optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
  • a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators, wherein
  • the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects to be interconnected;
  • a first termination of a current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of first ports of one object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port and correlates the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object to be correctly connected with the current first port;
  • a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port and determines whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code.
  • each of the indicators of each object is controlled to have a plurality of different indication states for indicating different operations for the respective port.
  • the server management device controls all indicators at respective ports of each object to be connected to hold at a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of each object.
  • the server management device controls the indicator corresponding to the current first port of the one object to switch into a second indication state different from the first indication state and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the second indication state.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state; and the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the predetermined indication state.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of first and second current ports correctly connected after a predetermined period.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls indicators of all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third object that is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected and should be removed from the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected.
  • the server management device controls indicators of the two or more second ports of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator to remove the two or more fibers from the other object until only one of the two or more fibers is left, and when only one of the two or more fibers is left, the server management device controls an indicator of a second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the left one fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state.
  • the predetermined indication state comprises a fourth indication state different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the third indication state.
  • the indicator comprises a lamp, a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
  • the indicator comprises a LED lamp.
  • the first indication state is a state selected from a slow flashing state, a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period, and a normally lighting state;
  • the second indication state is a state, different from the first indication state, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state;
  • the third indication state is a state, different from the first and second indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state;
  • the fourth indication state is a state, different from the first, second and third indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state.
  • the first indication state is the slow flashing state
  • the second indication state is the normally lighting state
  • the third indication state is the quick flashing state
  • the fourth indication state is the quick-slow flashing state.
  • the operator inserts the other ends of the fibers into the ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be connected under the guidance of the indicators after all ports of one of the pair of objects to be connected have been randomly inserted with fibers.
  • each of tags further contains an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
  • the server management device comprises only a central processing unit communicated with all objects to be interconnected.
  • the server management device comprising: a central processing unit; and a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective objects, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication state of the indicators of the respective objects.
  • the tag comprises a RFID tag.
  • the objects comprise different equipments or different regions or modules on a single equipment.
  • the equipment comprises an optical fiber distributing equipment, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a distribution fiber for the optical fiber distributing equipment.
  • At least one of the ports of at least one of the objects to be connected comprises a port of a portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
  • a method for interconnecting objects with optical fibers comprising steps of:
  • SI 00 providing a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, the system comprising:
  • optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
  • a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators
  • the server management device before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects to be interconnected;
  • S300 randomly inserting a first termination of a current optical fiber into one of first ports of one object of the pair of objects, obtaining a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port, and correlating the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object to be correctly connected with the current first port by means of the server management device;
  • S400 randomly inserting a second termination of the current optical fiber into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects, obtaining a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port, and determining whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code by means of the server management device, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state, so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code.
  • each of the indicators of each object is controlled to have a plurality of different indication states for indicating different operations for the respective port.
  • the above method further comprising a step S201 between the step S200 and the step S300:
  • the server management device controls all indicators at respective ports of each object to be connected to hold at a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of each object.
  • the server management device controls the indicator corresponding to the current first port of the one object to switch into a second indication state different from the first indication state and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber switch into to the second indication state.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state; and the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the predetermined indication state.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of first and second current ports correctly connected after a predetermined period.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls indicators of all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third object that is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected and should be removed from the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected.
  • the server management device controls indicators of the two or more second ports of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator to remove the two or more fibers from the other object until only one of the two or more fibers is left, and when only one of the two or more fibers is left, the server management device controls an indicator of a second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the left one fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state.
  • the predetermined indication state comprises a fourth indication state different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the third indication state.
  • the indicator comprises a lamp, a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
  • the indicator comprises a LED lamp.
  • the first indication state is a state selected from a slow flashing state, a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period, and a normally lighting state;
  • the second indication state is a state, different from the first indication state, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state;
  • the third indication state is a state, different from the first and second indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state;
  • the fourth indication state is a state, different from the first, second and third indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state.
  • the first indication state is the slow flashing state
  • the second indication state is the normally lighting state
  • the third indication state is the quick flashing state
  • the fourth indication state is the quick-slow flashing state.
  • the operator inserts the other terminations of the fibers into the ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be connected under the guidance of the indicators after all ports of one of the pair of objects to be connected have been randomly inserted with fibers.
  • each of tags further contains an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
  • the server management device comprises only a central processing unit communicated with all objects to be interconnected.
  • the server management device comprising: a central processing unit; and a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective objects, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication state of the indicators of the respective objects.
  • the tag comprises a RFID tag.
  • the objects comprise different equipments or different regions or modules on the same equipment.
  • the equipment comprises optical fiber distributing equipment, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a distribution fiber for the optical fiber distributing equipment.
  • At least one of the ports of at least one of the objects to be connected comprises a port of mobile portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
  • the operator can easily and correctly interconnect respective ports of objects with optical fibers in the field according to the indication states of the indicators of the respective ports.
  • a system and a method for intelligently and correctly connecting optical fibers in quantities on basis of the RFID technology can quickly connect the optical fibers between objects or modules of a single object regardless of the distance between the objects and can avoid the misconnection of the optical fibers.
  • the system adopts a computer server management technology, a RFID technology and indications of LED lamps, and the operator can correctly connect the optical fibers to the ports in the field under the guidance of the indications of the LED lamps. Also, the system can monitor the connection state of the respective ports in real time and provide a report related to this.
  • the system can ensure the operator to correctly connect the optical fibers to the ports in the field, remarkably improving the connection efficiency, eliminating the misconnection and reconnection for overcoming the misconnection, alleviating the work intensively of the operator. Similarly, the operator can perform the maintenance under the guidance of indications of the LED lamps.
  • connection system or method in prior art lacks the above features of the present invention, and the operator must visually identify the optical fibers and the ports in the field fully depended on serial numbers on the optical fibers and ports, it consumes much time. Furthermore, in prior art, it likely results the misconnection, and the misconnection cannot be easily found in time by the operator. Also, in the prior art, the maintenance is very inconvenient. In sum, in prior art, the connection and maintenance has disadvantages of low efficiency and high cost.
  • An advantage of the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention is that first and second terminations of optical fibers can be correctly connected to the respective ports of a pair of objects only under the guidance of indications of the LED lamps without a need to look up a fiber-port distribution table and identify serial numbers of optical fibers and ports in advance.
  • the ports of objects can be quickly and correctly interconnected in a manner of blind plug installation.
  • the first and second terminations of each optical fiber are provided with a first RFID tag and a second RFID tag, and the two RFID tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes.
  • the two RFID tags of each optical fiber may contain an unique identification code.
  • near each of the ports of the object is provided a RFID tag identification antenna to read the matching code and the identification code from the RFID tag.
  • near each of the ports is provided a LED lamp to indicate the state of the respective port, and the LED lamp is controlled to have different indications corresponding to different operations for the respective port.
  • the system may comprise a server to process the data read from the objects and control the indications of the LED lamps.
  • a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the server and the objects may be provided, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indications of the LED lamps of the objects.
  • Fig. l is a principle block diagram of a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention
  • Fig.2 is an illustrative view showing an example to build up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects A, B of Fig. l to be interconnected;
  • Fig.3 is an illustrative view showing an example of correlating a matching code of a current optical fiber randomly inserted into a current port of the object A of Fig. l to the current port of the object A and a port of the other object B to be correctly interconnected with the current port of the object A.
  • a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers comprising:
  • optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
  • a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators, wherein
  • the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects to be interconnected;
  • a first termination of a current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of first ports of one object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port and correlates the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object to be correctly connected with the current first port;
  • a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port and determines whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code
  • Fig. l is a principle block diagram of a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
  • the system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers mainly comprises a plurality of equipments (also referred as objects herein), for example, an equipment A, an equipment B, ... , and an equipment X.
  • equipments also referred as objects herein
  • each of the equipments A, B, ... , and X has a plurality of ports to be connected with optical fibers, and these ports may be arranged in an array.
  • the equipment A has a port Al, a port A2, ... , and a port AM (M is a positive integer larger than 2);
  • the equipment B has a port B 1 , a port B2, ... , and a port BN (N is a positive integer larger than 2);
  • the equipment X has a port XI, a port X2, ... , and a port XK (K is a positive integer larger than 2).
  • the embodiments of the present invention provide the system for correctly and quickly interconnecting equipments with optical fibers.
  • the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments, for example, the system of the present invention also can used to interconnect different regions or modules (also referred as objects herein) on the same equipment with optical fibers.
  • the same equipment has two or more different regions or modules each having a plurality of ports to be interconnected with optical fibers, and these ports may be arranged in an array in the region or module.
  • the system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention mainly comprising: optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes; a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports; a plurality of indicators provided at the plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators.
  • each of two terminations of each of optical fibers is provided with a RFID tag, and two RFID tags of each optical fibers contain an unique and the same matching code.
  • the two RFID tags of each optical fibers may contain different but correlated matching codes.
  • a first RFID tag of a first termination of an optical fiber may contain a matching code 'CIA
  • a second RFID tag of a second termination of the optical fiber may contain a matching code ⁇ ' .
  • the two matching codes of the two RFID tags of the optical fiber can be correctly correlated to each other by means of a common section 'CI ' of the two matching codes 'CIA and ⁇ '.
  • the first termination and the second termination of the optical fiber may be identified based on different sections ⁇ and 'B' of the two matching codes 'CIA and 'C1B' .
  • each of tags may also contain an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
  • a corresponding RFID reader antenna for reading the matching code of the RFID tag of the optical fiber inserted into the first port.
  • the RFID reader antennas may be arranged in an array as the first ports to be connected.
  • a corresponding LED indicator LEDA1, LEDA2, LED AM for indicating the state of the respective first port.
  • a corresponding RFID reader antenna for reading the matching code of the RFID tag of the optical fiber inserted into the second port.
  • the RFID reader antennas may be arranged in an array as the second ports to be connected.
  • a corresponding LED indicator LEDB 1, LEDB2, ... , LEDBN for indicating the state of the respective second port.
  • a corresponding RFID reader antenna for reading the matching code of the RFID tag of the optical fiber inserted into the Xth port.
  • the RFID reader antennas may be arranged in an array as the Xth ports to be connected.
  • a corresponding LED indicator LEDX1, LEDX2, LEDXK for indicating the state of the respective Xth port.
  • the RFID tag is used as the tag of the optical fiber in the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l
  • the present invention is not limited to this, the tag of the optical fiber may be taken the form of a bar code, a digital mark, an image mark, or any other suitable tag adhered or printed to the terminations of optical fiber as long as these tags can be automatically read by an electrical apparatus.
  • the reader in the system of the present invention is not limited to the RFID reader antenna shown in Fig. l, the reader may be taken the form of a bar code reader, a digital mark reader, an image mark reader, or any other suitable tag reader as long as these readers can automatically read data from the tags.
  • the LED lamp is used as the indicator in the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, but the present invention is not limited to this, the indicator may be a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof. In this way, the operator can correctly insert the optical fiber into the port under visual, auditory or tactile guidance.
  • the computer server management device is used as the central processing unit for processing data read from the respective equipments and controlling the indication states of the respective indicators.
  • the system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention may further comprise a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective equipments, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication states of the indicators of the respective equipments.
  • the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments shown in Fig. l, the secondary processing unit may be omitted. That is, the system of the present invention may comprise only the central processing unit communicated with all equipments to be interconnected and not comprise any secondary processing unit.
  • the ports of each of the equipments to be connected may comprise a port of a portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
  • the ports of each of the equipments to be connected may comprise a port of a mobile electronic equipment communicated with the server management device in real time.
  • the operator can firstly insert the termination of the optical fiber into the port of the portable electronic device and identify the matching code and the correct port currently to be connected under the guidance of the indications of the indicators. In this way, the operator can quickly identify the matching code and the correct port because the port of the portable electronic device is more easily accessible by the operator in the field than the port of the normal fiber distribution equipments to be interconnected.
  • the portable electronic device may be used to increase the number of the ports of the equipment to be connected according to a practical requirement.
  • the portable electronic device may be communicated with the server management device through a direct or indirect communication connection.
  • the central processing unit builds up a task form comprising a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of the pair of equipments A and B to be interconnected.
  • the ports of the equipment A to be connected comprise port Al, port A2, port A3, port A4, port A5 and port A6, and it is assumed that the ports of the equipment B to be connected comprise port B l, port B2, port B3, port B4, port B5 and port B6.
  • the correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of the pair of equipments A and B is as follows: the port Al of the equipment A should be connected to the port B4 of the equipment B, the port A2 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B5 of the equipment B, the port A3 of the equipment A should be connected to the port Bl of the equipment B, the port A4 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B2 of the equipment B, the port A5 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B3 of the equipment B, and the port A6 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B6 of the equipment B.
  • the server management device controls all indicators of respective ports of the equipments A and B to be connected to a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of the equipments A and B.
  • the first indication state may comprise a slow flashing state.
  • an operator may take an optical fiber and randomly insert a first termination of the current optical fiber into one of the ports of one equipment of the pair of equipments A and B, for example, randomly insert the first termination of the current optical fiber into the port Al of the equipment A.
  • the server management device controls the indicator LEDA1 of the port Al to a second indication state different from the first indication state, and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port B4 of the other equipment B correlated to the matching code CI (please see Fig.3) of the current optical fiber to change into the second indication state.
  • the second indication state may comprise a normally lighting state.
  • the operator can randomly insert the other optical fibers into the other ports A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A until all ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A each has been inserted with optical fiber.
  • the server management device obtains the matching code CI of the RFID tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current port Al and correlates the matching code CI to the current port Al and a port B4 of the other equipment B to be correctly connected with the current port Al.
  • the server management device may perform the correlating operation after some or all of the ports of the equipment A have been inserted with optical fibers.
  • the server management device obtains the matching codes CI, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 of the RFID tags of the first terminations of the optical fibers inserted into the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A through the readers corresponding to the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A, and correlates the matching codes CI, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 to the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A and the ports B4, B5, Bl, B2, B3, B6 of the other equipment B to be correctly connected with the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A.
  • the matching code CI is correlated to the port Al of the equipment A and the port B4 of the equipment B
  • the matching code C2 is correlated to the port A2 of the equipment A and the port B5 of the equipment B
  • the matching code C3 is correlated to the port A3 of the equipment A and the port Bl of the equipment B
  • the matching code C4 is correlated to the port A4 of the equipment A and the port B2 of the equipment B
  • the matching code C5 is correlated to the port A5 of the equipment A and the port B3 of the equipment B
  • the matching code C6 is correlated to the port A6 of the equipment A and the port B6 of the equipment B.
  • the operator may take one from the optical fibers that have been inserted into the ports of the equipment A and randomly insert a second termination of the optical fiber into one of the ports of the equipment B, for example, the operator may randomly insert the second termination of the optical fiber, that has been inserted into the port Al of the equipment A and has the matching code CI, into the port B l of the equipment B.
  • the server management device obtains the matching code CI of the tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current port B l, and determines whether the current port Bl of the other equipment B is the port correctly correlated to the matching code CI . Since the port of the equipment B correctly correlated to the matching code CI is the port B4, the server management device determines that the current port B 1 of the other equipment B is not the port B4 of the equipment B correctly correlated to the matching code CI .
  • the sever management device controls the indicator of the current port Bl of the other equipment B to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the port B4 of the other equipment B correlated to the matching code C 1 of the current optical fiber to switch into a fourth indication state (also referred as the predetermined indication state herein) different from the first, second and third indication states, so as to guide the operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the port B4 of the other equipment B correctly correlated to the matching code CI .
  • a fourth indication state also referred as the predetermined indication state herein
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current port B4 of the equipment B to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of ports Al and B4 that have been correctly connected after a predetermined period, for example, 3 seconds.
  • the operator can correctly insert the optical fibers into the other ports Bl, B2, B3, B5 and B6 of the equipment B under the guidance of the indicators until all ports Bl, B2, B3, B4, B5 and B6 of the equipment B have been correctly inserted with optical fibers.
  • the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the fourth indication state.
  • the third indication state may comprise a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, for alerting the misconnection.
  • the fourth indication state may comprise a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period.
  • the fourth indication state is set to be the quick-slow flashing state different from the first, second and third indication states
  • the present invention is not limited to this, and the fourth indication state may be set to be any other suitable indication state, for example, a flashing state alternatively changing colors, that can be differentiated from the first, second and third indication states.
  • the system for interconnecting equipments with optical fibers also has an ability preventing error.
  • it will still take the pair of equipments A and B as an example to describe the ability preventing error of the system.
  • the server management device obtains a matching code CO of a tag of the error optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current port Bl, and looks up a port correlated to the matching code CO from the task form as shown in Fig.3.
  • the server management device cannot find the port correlated to the matching code CO from the task form as shown in Fig.3, and the server management device can determine that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third equipment that is not any one of the pair of equipments A and B to be currently interconnected.
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the current port Bl of the equipment B to switch into the third indication state different from the first and second indication states, and controls indicators of all empty ports B2, B3, B4, B5, B6 of the equipment B to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber is an error optical fiber that has been inserted into the third equipment that is not any one of the pair of equipments to be currently interconnected and should be removed from the port B 1 of the equipment B.
  • the system for interconnecting equipments with optical fibers also has a further ability preventing error.
  • it will still take the pair of equipments A and B as an example to describe the further ability preventing error of the system.
  • the server management device controls indicators of the two ports B 1 and B2 of the other equipment B to switch into the third indication state (for example, the quick flashing state), and controls all empty ports B3, B4, B5, B6 of the other equipment B to switch into the second indication state (for example, the normally lighting state), so as to notice the operator to remove the two fibers from the other equipment B until only one of the two fibers is left, for example, the optical fiber having the matching code CI is removed from the port Bl of the equipment B, and only the optical fiber having the matching code C2 is left.
  • the third indication state for example, the quick flashing state
  • the second indication state for example, the normally lighting state
  • the server management device controls the indicator of the port B5 of the equipment B correlated to the matching code C2 of the left optical fiber to switch into the fourth indication state (for example, the quick-slow flashing state), so as to guide the operator to correctly insert the second termination of the left optical fiber having the matching code C2 into the port B5 of the equipment B.
  • the fourth indication state for example, the quick-slow flashing state
  • the system for interconnecting the equipments uses the optical fibers with RFID tags.
  • the RFID tags of each of the optical fibers contain an unique and the same matching code. In this way, the readers at respective ports of the equipments can obtain the matching code from the RFID tag and identify the optical fiber based on the obtained matching code.
  • the RFID tag is used as the tag of the optical fiber in the above embodiments of the present invention
  • the present invention is not limited to this, the tag of the optical fiber may be taken the form of a bar code, a digital mark, an image mark, or any other suitable tag adhered or printed to the terminations of optical fiber as long as these tags can be automatically read by an electrical apparatus.
  • a chip or a circuit may be used as the tag of the optical fiber, and the chip or a circuit may be disposed inside the termination of the optical fiber, and the electronic identification device (EDI) for the chip or the circuit may be a conductive contact interface, instead of the RFID reader antenna of Fig.1.
  • EDI electronic identification device
  • the system of the present invention is not only adapted to the fiber interconnection between two equipments, but also adapted to the fiber interconnection between three or more equipments. Furthermore, the system of the present invention is also adapted to the fiber interconnection between different regions or modules of a single equipment.
  • the quick flashing state, the slow flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, the normally lighting state and the light out state of the LED lamp are used to guide the connection of the optical fiber, alert the misconnection of the optical fiber, indicate the operation state, and so on.
  • the indication state of the LED lamp may comprise any other suitable indication state, for example, various color indication states of color-changing LED lamp.
  • the LED lamp is used as the indicator in the above exemplary embodiments of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to this, the indicator may be a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
  • the operator can correctly insert the optical fiber into the port under visual, auditory or tactile guidance.
  • the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention can achieve the advantage that the operator can correctly insert the optical fibers into the respective ports of the equipments in the field only under the guidance of indications of the LED lamps without a need to look up a fiber-port distribution table and identify serial numbers of optical fibers and ports in advance.
  • the ports of the equipments can be quickly and correctly interconnected in a manner of blind plug installation.
  • system according to the above embodiments of the present invention can automatically find the misconnection of the optical fiber in time and guide the operator to insert the misconnected optical fiber to the correct port again.
  • the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention can achieve quick interconnection between equipments with the optical fibers, especially, in quantities, and has the ability of preventing error or displaying error.

Abstract

System for interconnecting two objects (A, B) with optical fibers, comprising optical fibers with tagged terminations, the objects having ports (A1, B1,...) with associated readers and indicators (LED A1, LED B1,...), further comprising a server device for defining a desired one-to-one correlation between the ports of the objects to be interconnected; wherein upon insertion of an optical fiber first termination into a random port of the first object and the subsequent insertion of the fiber second termination into a random port of the second object the server device, if the second port is not correct, the system controls the indicator of the correct second port of the second object to indicate to the operator the correct second port; namely, upon said insertion of the optical fiber first termination, the server device obtains the code (C1,...) of the first termination tag through the respective reader and correlates this code to said first port and to the correct port of the second object to which the optical fiber is to be connected.

Description

SYSTEM AMD METHOD FOR INTERCONNECTING OBJECTS WITH OPTICAL FIBERS
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201310222641.7 filed on June, 6 2013 in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relates to a system and a method for correctly interconnecting objects or modules of the same object with optical fibers, more particularly, relates to a system and a method for intelligently and correctly connecting optical fibers, for example, connecting distribution fibers of optical fiber distributing equipments, in quantities.
Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, during connecting optical fibers in an optical fiber distribution system, the optical fibers are identified depended on serial numbers on tags adhered to the optical fibers or serial numbers printed on the optical fibers. Also, ports to be connected with the optical fibers are identified depended on serial numbers on tags adhered to the ports or serial numbers printed on the ports. In some conditions, there may be no serial number on the ports, and the ports are identified depended on only the order of arranging them.
Accordingly, in practice, for finishing a connection operation of optical fibers, an operator has to perform the following steps of: firstly, looking up a fiber-port distribution table; secondly, visually identifying serial numbers of optical fibers; and finally, looking for ports corresponding to the optical fibers based on the table and correctly inserting the optical fibers into the respective ports. During each of the above steps, it needs the operator to carefully identifying the serial numbers, causing the vision tiredness of the operator. In a situation, the serial numbers may become blurred or damaged due to the severe application condition and may be illegible for the operator. Also, lighting in the operation field may disadvantageously affect the operator to identify and determine the serial numbers. Furthermore, it is difficult for the operator to find a misconnection of the optical fibers in the field, and the operator cannot find the misconnection in time. Also, the operator encounters the above difficulties again during performing the maintenance for the optical fiber.
An identification device adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, as a wireless communication technology, can identify specific targets and read and write data correlated to the specific targets with wireless communication signals. As a result, it is not necessary to build up a physical electrical or optical connection between the identification device and the specific targets. The RFID identification device has a reader. The reader can transmit a wireless electromagnetic field toward the RFID tag adhered on the target, and the RFID identification device can identify the RFID tag depended on an interaction of the wireless electromagnetic field with the RFID tag, obtain the data from the RFID tag and transmit the data to a target device. In this way, the RFID identification device can automatically identify and track the physical position of the target. The RFID tag may be configured to get energy from the electromagnetic field transmitted from the reader and does not have a battery therein. Otherwise, the RFID tag may be provided with a power source therein and can actively transmit a radio wave (which can be adjusted to the electromagnetic field). The RFID contains data electronically stored therein, and the reliable identification distance for the RFID may be up to several meters. The RFID tag is different from a bar code tag because the RFID can be not only provided on a surface of the target to be identified/tracked, but also embedded inside the target to be identified/tracked.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to overcome or alleviate at least one aspect of the above mentioned disadvantages.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and a method for intelligently and correctly connecting optical fibers between objects or modules of the same object in quantities, without a need to look up a fiber-port distribution table and identify serial numbers of optical fibers and ports in advance. With the system and the method of embodiments of the present invention, the ports of objects can be quickly and correctly interconnected in a manner of blind plug installation.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, comprising:
optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports;
a plurality of indicators provided at the plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and
a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators, wherein
before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects to be interconnected;
a first termination of a current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of first ports of one object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port and correlates the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object to be correctly connected with the current first port; and
a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port and determines whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, each of the indicators of each object is controlled to have a plurality of different indication states for indicating different operations for the respective port.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device controls all indicators at respective ports of each object to be connected to hold at a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of each object.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the first termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into the current first port of one of the pair of objects, the server management device controls the indicator corresponding to the current first port of the one object to switch into a second indication state different from the first indication state and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the second indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is not a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state; and the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the predetermined indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of first and second current ports correctly connected after a predetermined period.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in the case where a first termination of a current optical fiber has been inserted into a third object which is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected, when a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected, the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls indicators of all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third object that is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected and should be removed from the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when two or more fibers are incorrectly inserted into two or more second ports of the other object to be connected, the server management device controls indicators of the two or more second ports of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator to remove the two or more fibers from the other object until only one of the two or more fibers is left, and when only one of the two or more fibers is left, the server management device controls an indicator of a second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the left one fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the predetermined indication state comprises a fourth indication state different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the third indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the indicator comprises a lamp, a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the indicator comprises a LED lamp.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the first indication state is a state selected from a slow flashing state, a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period, and a normally lighting state; the second indication state is a state, different from the first indication state, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state; the third indication state is a state, different from the first and second indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state; and the fourth indication state is a state, different from the first, second and third indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the first indication state is the slow flashing state, the second indication state is the normally lighting state, the third indication state is the quick flashing state, and the fourth indication state is the quick-slow flashing state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the operator inserts the other ends of the fibers into the ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be connected under the guidance of the indicators after all ports of one of the pair of objects to be connected have been randomly inserted with fibers.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, each of tags further contains an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the server management device comprises only a central processing unit communicated with all objects to be interconnected.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the server management device comprising: a central processing unit; and a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective objects, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication state of the indicators of the respective objects.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the tag comprises a RFID tag.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the objects comprise different equipments or different regions or modules on a single equipment.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the equipment comprises an optical fiber distributing equipment, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a distribution fiber for the optical fiber distributing equipment.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the ports of at least one of the objects to be connected comprises a port of a portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, comprising steps of:
SI 00: providing a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, the system comprising:
optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports;
a plurality of indicators provided at the plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators;
S200: before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects to be interconnected;
S300: randomly inserting a first termination of a current optical fiber into one of first ports of one object of the pair of objects, obtaining a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port, and correlating the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object to be correctly connected with the current first port by means of the server management device; and
S400: randomly inserting a second termination of the current optical fiber into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects, obtaining a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port, and determining whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code by means of the server management device, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state, so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, each of the indicators of each object is controlled to have a plurality of different indication states for indicating different operations for the respective port.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the above method further comprising a step S201 between the step S200 and the step S300:
S201 : before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device controls all indicators at respective ports of each object to be connected to hold at a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of each object.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, during the step S300, when the first termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into the current first port of one of the pair of objects, the server management device controls the indicator corresponding to the current first port of the one object to switch into a second indication state different from the first indication state and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber switch into to the second indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, during the step of S400, when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is not a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state; and the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the predetermined indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, during the step of S400, when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of first and second current ports correctly connected after a predetermined period.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in the case where a first termination of a current optical fiber has been inserted into another equipment which is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected, when a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected, the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls indicators of all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third object that is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected and should be removed from the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when two or more fibers are incorrectly inserted into two or more second ports of the other object to be connected, the server management device controls indicators of the two or more second ports of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator to remove the two or more fibers from the other object until only one of the two or more fibers is left, and when only one of the two or more fibers is left, the server management device controls an indicator of a second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the left one fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the predetermined indication state comprises a fourth indication state different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the third indication state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the indicator comprises a lamp, a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the indicator comprises a LED lamp.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the first indication state is a state selected from a slow flashing state, a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period, and a normally lighting state; the second indication state is a state, different from the first indication state, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state; the third indication state is a state, different from the first and second indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state; and the fourth indication state is a state, different from the first, second and third indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the first indication state is the slow flashing state, the second indication state is the normally lighting state, the third indication state is the quick flashing state, and the fourth indication state is the quick-slow flashing state.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the operator inserts the other terminations of the fibers into the ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be connected under the guidance of the indicators after all ports of one of the pair of objects to be connected have been randomly inserted with fibers.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, each of tags further contains an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the server management device comprises only a central processing unit communicated with all objects to be interconnected.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the server management device comprising: a central processing unit; and a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective objects, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication state of the indicators of the respective objects. According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the tag comprises a RFID tag.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the objects comprise different equipments or different regions or modules on the same equipment.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the equipment comprises optical fiber distributing equipment, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a distribution fiber for the optical fiber distributing equipment.
According to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, at least one of the ports of at least one of the objects to be connected comprises a port of mobile portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
In the above various embodiments of the present invention, the operator can easily and correctly interconnect respective ports of objects with optical fibers in the field according to the indication states of the indicators of the respective ports.
According to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a system and a method for intelligently and correctly connecting optical fibers in quantities on basis of the RFID technology. The system and the method can quickly connect the optical fibers between objects or modules of a single object regardless of the distance between the objects and can avoid the misconnection of the optical fibers. The system adopts a computer server management technology, a RFID technology and indications of LED lamps, and the operator can correctly connect the optical fibers to the ports in the field under the guidance of the indications of the LED lamps. Also, the system can monitor the connection state of the respective ports in real time and provide a report related to this.
The system can ensure the operator to correctly connect the optical fibers to the ports in the field, remarkably improving the connection efficiency, eliminating the misconnection and reconnection for overcoming the misconnection, alleviating the work intensively of the operator. Similarly, the operator can perform the maintenance under the guidance of indications of the LED lamps.
However, the connection system or method in prior art lacks the above features of the present invention, and the operator must visually identify the optical fibers and the ports in the field fully depended on serial numbers on the optical fibers and ports, it consumes much time. Furthermore, in prior art, it likely results the misconnection, and the misconnection cannot be easily found in time by the operator. Also, in the prior art, the maintenance is very inconvenient. In sum, in prior art, the connection and maintenance has disadvantages of low efficiency and high cost.
An advantage of the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention is that first and second terminations of optical fibers can be correctly connected to the respective ports of a pair of objects only under the guidance of indications of the LED lamps without a need to look up a fiber-port distribution table and identify serial numbers of optical fibers and ports in advance. With the system and the method of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the ports of objects can be quickly and correctly interconnected in a manner of blind plug installation.
In the system according to the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the first and second terminations of each optical fiber are provided with a first RFID tag and a second RFID tag, and the two RFID tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes. Also, the two RFID tags of each optical fiber may contain an unique identification code. Also, near each of the ports of the object is provided a RFID tag identification antenna to read the matching code and the identification code from the RFID tag. Also, near each of the ports is provided a LED lamp to indicate the state of the respective port, and the LED lamp is controlled to have different indications corresponding to different operations for the respective port. Also, the system may comprise a server to process the data read from the objects and control the indications of the LED lamps. Furthermore, a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the server and the objects may be provided, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indications of the LED lamps of the objects.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other features of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. l is a principle block diagram of a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
Fig.2 is an illustrative view showing an example to build up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects A, B of Fig. l to be interconnected; and
Fig.3 is an illustrative view showing an example of correlating a matching code of a current optical fiber randomly inserted into a current port of the object A of Fig. l to the current port of the object A and a port of the other object B to be correctly interconnected with the current port of the object A.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMB ODEVIENT S OF THE IVENTION
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein the like reference numerals refer to the like elements. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
According to a general concept of the present invention, there is provided a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, comprising:
optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports;
a plurality of indicators provided at the plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and
a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators, wherein
before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects to be interconnected;
a first termination of a current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of first ports of one object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port and correlates the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object to be correctly connected with the current first port; and
a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects, and the server management device obtains a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port and determines whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code
Fig. l is a principle block diagram of a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in Fig. l, in the illustrated embodiment, the system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers mainly comprises a plurality of equipments (also referred as objects herein), for example, an equipment A, an equipment B, ... , and an equipment X.
As shown in Fig.1 , each of the equipments A, B, ... , and X has a plurality of ports to be connected with optical fibers, and these ports may be arranged in an array. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the equipment A has a port Al, a port A2, ... , and a port AM (M is a positive integer larger than 2); the equipment B has a port B 1 , a port B2, ... , and a port BN (N is a positive integer larger than 2); the equipment X has a port XI, a port X2, ... , and a port XK (K is a positive integer larger than 2).
In application, it is necessary to build up a fiber interconnection between two or more equipments of a fiber distribution system according to a practical requirement. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present invention provide the system for correctly and quickly interconnecting equipments with optical fibers.
Please be noted that the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments, for example, the system of the present invention also can used to interconnect different regions or modules (also referred as objects herein) on the same equipment with optical fibers. In an exemplary embodiment, the same equipment has two or more different regions or modules each having a plurality of ports to be interconnected with optical fibers, and these ports may be arranged in an array in the region or module.
The system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention mainly comprising: optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes; a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports; a plurality of indicators provided at the plurality of ports of each object to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators.
In the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, each of two terminations of each of optical fibers is provided with a RFID tag, and two RFID tags of each optical fibers contain an unique and the same matching code.
But the present invention is not limited to this, the two RFID tags of each optical fibers may contain different but correlated matching codes. For example, a first RFID tag of a first termination of an optical fiber may contain a matching code 'CIA, and a second RFID tag of a second termination of the optical fiber may contain a matching code ΌΒ' . In this way, the two matching codes of the two RFID tags of the optical fiber can be correctly correlated to each other by means of a common section 'CI ' of the two matching codes 'CIA and ΌΒ'. In addition, the first termination and the second termination of the optical fiber may be identified based on different sections Ά and 'B' of the two matching codes 'CIA and 'C1B' .
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, each of tags may also contain an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
In the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, at each of the ports (also referred as first ports herein) of the equipment A to be connected is provided a corresponding RFID reader antenna, for reading the matching code of the RFID tag of the optical fiber inserted into the first port. The RFID reader antennas may be arranged in an array as the first ports to be connected. Also, at each of the first ports of the equipment A to be connected is provided a corresponding LED indicator LEDA1, LEDA2, LED AM, for indicating the state of the respective first port.
Similarly, in the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, at each of the ports (also referred as second ports herein) of the equipment B to be connected is provided a corresponding RFID reader antenna, for reading the matching code of the RFID tag of the optical fiber inserted into the second port. The RFID reader antennas may be arranged in an array as the second ports to be connected. Also, at each of the second ports of the equipment B to be connected is provided a corresponding LED indicator LEDB 1, LEDB2, ... , LEDBN, for indicating the state of the respective second port.
Similarly, in the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, at each of the ports (also referred as Xth ports herein) of the equipment X to be connected is provided a corresponding RFID reader antenna, for reading the matching code of the RFID tag of the optical fiber inserted into the Xth port. The RFID reader antennas may be arranged in an array as the Xth ports to be connected. Also, at each of the Xth ports of the equipment X to be connected is provided a corresponding LED indicator LEDX1, LEDX2, LEDXK, for indicating the state of the respective Xth port.
Although the RFID tag is used as the tag of the optical fiber in the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, the present invention is not limited to this, the tag of the optical fiber may be taken the form of a bar code, a digital mark, an image mark, or any other suitable tag adhered or printed to the terminations of optical fiber as long as these tags can be automatically read by an electrical apparatus. Correspondingly, the reader in the system of the present invention is not limited to the RFID reader antenna shown in Fig. l, the reader may be taken the form of a bar code reader, a digital mark reader, an image mark reader, or any other suitable tag reader as long as these readers can automatically read data from the tags.
Although the LED lamp is used as the indicator in the exemplary embodiment shown in Fig. l, but the present invention is not limited to this, the indicator may be a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof. In this way, the operator can correctly insert the optical fiber into the port under visual, auditory or tactile guidance.
Referring to Fig. l again, in the illustrated embodiment, the computer server management device is used as the central processing unit for processing data read from the respective equipments and controlling the indication states of the respective indicators.
As shown in Fig.1, in addition to the central processing unit, the system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention may further comprise a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective equipments, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication states of the indicators of the respective equipments.
Please be noted that the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments shown in Fig. l, the secondary processing unit may be omitted. That is, the system of the present invention may comprise only the central processing unit communicated with all equipments to be interconnected and not comprise any secondary processing unit.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the ports of each of the equipments to be connected may comprise a port of a portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time. For example, as shown in Fig. l, the ports of each of the equipments to be connected may comprise a port of a mobile electronic equipment communicated with the server management device in real time. In the illustrated embodiment, the operator can firstly insert the termination of the optical fiber into the port of the portable electronic device and identify the matching code and the correct port currently to be connected under the guidance of the indications of the indicators. In this way, the operator can quickly identify the matching code and the correct port because the port of the portable electronic device is more easily accessible by the operator in the field than the port of the normal fiber distribution equipments to be interconnected. In another exemplary embodiment, the portable electronic device may be used to increase the number of the ports of the equipment to be connected according to a practical requirement. The portable electronic device may be communicated with the server management device through a direct or indirect communication connection.
Hereafter, it will describe in detail the system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention by taking the process of building up a fiber interconnection between the equipment A and the equipment B as an example.
Firstly, before inserting the optical fiber, according to the practical requirement, the central processing unit builds up a task form comprising a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of the pair of equipments A and B to be interconnected. For example, as shown in Fig.2, it is assumed that the ports of the equipment A to be connected comprise port Al, port A2, port A3, port A4, port A5 and port A6, and it is assumed that the ports of the equipment B to be connected comprise port B l, port B2, port B3, port B4, port B5 and port B6. Furthermore, according to the practical requirement, as shown in Fig.2, it is assumed that the correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of the pair of equipments A and B is as follows: the port Al of the equipment A should be connected to the port B4 of the equipment B, the port A2 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B5 of the equipment B, the port A3 of the equipment A should be connected to the port Bl of the equipment B, the port A4 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B2 of the equipment B, the port A5 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B3 of the equipment B, and the port A6 of the equipment A should be connected to the port B6 of the equipment B. After the central processing unit builds up the task form, the server management device controls all indicators of respective ports of the equipments A and B to be connected to a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of the equipments A and B. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the first indication state may comprise a slow flashing state.
Thereafter, an operator may take an optical fiber and randomly insert a first termination of the current optical fiber into one of the ports of one equipment of the pair of equipments A and B, for example, randomly insert the first termination of the current optical fiber into the port Al of the equipment A. Once the first termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into the port Al of the equipment A, the server management device controls the indicator LEDA1 of the port Al to a second indication state different from the first indication state, and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port B4 of the other equipment B correlated to the matching code CI (please see Fig.3) of the current optical fiber to change into the second indication state. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the second indication state may comprise a normally lighting state. Similarly, the operator can randomly insert the other optical fibers into the other ports A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A until all ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A each has been inserted with optical fiber.
When one port, for example, the port Al, of the ports of the equipment A has been inserted with the optical fiber, as shown in Fig.3, the server management device obtains the matching code CI of the RFID tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current port Al and correlates the matching code CI to the current port Al and a port B4 of the other equipment B to be correctly connected with the current port Al. Please be noted that the server management device may perform the correlating operation after some or all of the ports of the equipment A have been inserted with optical fibers. For example, after all of the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A have been inserted with optical fibers, as shown in Fig.3, the server management device obtains the matching codes CI, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 of the RFID tags of the first terminations of the optical fibers inserted into the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A through the readers corresponding to the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A, and correlates the matching codes CI, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 to the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A and the ports B4, B5, Bl, B2, B3, B6 of the other equipment B to be correctly connected with the ports Al, A2, A3, A4, A5 and A6 of the equipment A.
For example, in an exemplary embodiment shown in Fig.3, the matching code CI is correlated to the port Al of the equipment A and the port B4 of the equipment B, the matching code C2 is correlated to the port A2 of the equipment A and the port B5 of the equipment B, the matching code C3 is correlated to the port A3 of the equipment A and the port Bl of the equipment B, the matching code C4 is correlated to the port A4 of the equipment A and the port B2 of the equipment B, the matching code C5 is correlated to the port A5 of the equipment A and the port B3 of the equipment B, and the matching code C6 is correlated to the port A6 of the equipment A and the port B6 of the equipment B.
After the matching codes of the optical fibers inserted into the ports of the equipment A have been correlated to the ports of the equipment A and the ports of the equipment B, the operator may take one from the optical fibers that have been inserted into the ports of the equipment A and randomly insert a second termination of the optical fiber into one of the ports of the equipment B, for example, the operator may randomly insert the second termination of the optical fiber, that has been inserted into the port Al of the equipment A and has the matching code CI, into the port B l of the equipment B. Once the optical fiber is inserted into the port Bl of the equipment B, the server management device obtains the matching code CI of the tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current port B l, and determines whether the current port Bl of the other equipment B is the port correctly correlated to the matching code CI . Since the port of the equipment B correctly correlated to the matching code CI is the port B4, the server management device determines that the current port B 1 of the other equipment B is not the port B4 of the equipment B correctly correlated to the matching code CI . In this case, the sever management device controls the indicator of the current port Bl of the other equipment B to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the port B4 of the other equipment B correlated to the matching code C 1 of the current optical fiber to switch into a fourth indication state (also referred as the predetermined indication state herein) different from the first, second and third indication states, so as to guide the operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the port B4 of the other equipment B correctly correlated to the matching code CI . When the second termination of the current optical fiber is correctly inserted into the port B4 of the equipment B correlated to the matching code CI, the server management device controls the indicator of the current port B4 of the equipment B to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of ports Al and B4 that have been correctly connected after a predetermined period, for example, 3 seconds.
Similarly, the operator can correctly insert the optical fibers into the other ports Bl, B2, B3, B5 and B6 of the equipment B under the guidance of the indicators until all ports Bl, B2, B3, B4, B5 and B6 of the equipment B have been correctly inserted with optical fibers.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the fourth indication state. For example, the third indication state may comprise a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, for alerting the misconnection. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the fourth indication state may comprise a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period. In the above described embodiment, although the fourth indication state is set to be the quick-slow flashing state different from the first, second and third indication states, the present invention is not limited to this, and the fourth indication state may be set to be any other suitable indication state, for example, a flashing state alternatively changing colors, that can be differentiated from the first, second and third indication states.
The system for interconnecting equipments with optical fibers according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention also has an ability preventing error. Hereafter, it will still take the pair of equipments A and B as an example to describe the ability preventing error of the system. For example, in the case where a first termination of a current optical fiber has been inserted into a third equipment which is not any one of the pair of equipments A and B to be interconnected, when a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of the ports of the equipment B of the pair of equipments A and B, for example, inserted into the port Bl of the equipment B, the server management device obtains a matching code CO of a tag of the error optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current port Bl, and looks up a port correlated to the matching code CO from the task form as shown in Fig.3. As a result, the server management device cannot find the port correlated to the matching code CO from the task form as shown in Fig.3, and the server management device can determine that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third equipment that is not any one of the pair of equipments A and B to be currently interconnected. In this case, the server management device controls the indicator of the current port Bl of the equipment B to switch into the third indication state different from the first and second indication states, and controls indicators of all empty ports B2, B3, B4, B5, B6 of the equipment B to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber is an error optical fiber that has been inserted into the third equipment that is not any one of the pair of equipments to be currently interconnected and should be removed from the port B 1 of the equipment B.
Furthermore, the system for interconnecting equipments with optical fibers according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention also has a further ability preventing error. Hereafter, it will still take the pair of equipments A and B as an example to describe the further ability preventing error of the system. When two or more fibers are incorrectly inserted into two or more ports of the equipment to be connected, for example, when two optical fibers, one of which has the matching code CI and has been inserted into the port Al of the equipment A, and the other of which has the matching code C2 and has been inserted into the port A2 of the equipment A, are incorrectly inserted into the port Bl and the port B2 of the other equipment B, respectively, the server management device controls indicators of the two ports B 1 and B2 of the other equipment B to switch into the third indication state (for example, the quick flashing state), and controls all empty ports B3, B4, B5, B6 of the other equipment B to switch into the second indication state (for example, the normally lighting state), so as to notice the operator to remove the two fibers from the other equipment B until only one of the two fibers is left, for example, the optical fiber having the matching code CI is removed from the port Bl of the equipment B, and only the optical fiber having the matching code C2 is left. In this case, when only the optical fiber having the matching code C2 is not removed and left, the server management device controls the indicator of the port B5 of the equipment B correlated to the matching code C2 of the left optical fiber to switch into the fourth indication state (for example, the quick-slow flashing state), so as to guide the operator to correctly insert the second termination of the left optical fiber having the matching code C2 into the port B5 of the equipment B.
In the above exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the system for interconnecting the equipments uses the optical fibers with RFID tags. The RFID tags of each of the optical fibers contain an unique and the same matching code. In this way, the readers at respective ports of the equipments can obtain the matching code from the RFID tag and identify the optical fiber based on the obtained matching code.
Although the RFID tag is used as the tag of the optical fiber in the above embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to this, the tag of the optical fiber may be taken the form of a bar code, a digital mark, an image mark, or any other suitable tag adhered or printed to the terminations of optical fiber as long as these tags can be automatically read by an electrical apparatus.
Alternatively, in another exemplary embodiment, a chip or a circuit may be used as the tag of the optical fiber, and the chip or a circuit may be disposed inside the termination of the optical fiber, and the electronic identification device (EDI) for the chip or the circuit may be a conductive contact interface, instead of the RFID reader antenna of Fig.1.
The system of the present invention is not only adapted to the fiber interconnection between two equipments, but also adapted to the fiber interconnection between three or more equipments. Furthermore, the system of the present invention is also adapted to the fiber interconnection between different regions or modules of a single equipment.
In the above exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the quick flashing state, the slow flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, the normally lighting state and the light out state of the LED lamp are used to guide the connection of the optical fiber, alert the misconnection of the optical fiber, indicate the operation state, and so on. But it should be appreciated for those skilled in this art that the indication state of the LED lamp may comprise any other suitable indication state, for example, various color indication states of color-changing LED lamp.
Although the LED lamp is used as the indicator in the above exemplary embodiments of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to this, the indicator may be a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof. Correspondingly, the operator can correctly insert the optical fiber into the port under visual, auditory or tactile guidance.
According to the above exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it can quickly connect the optical fibers between equipments or different regions or modules of the same equipment regardless of the distance between the equipments and can avoid the misconnection of the optical fibers. Accordingly, the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention can achieve the advantage that the operator can correctly insert the optical fibers into the respective ports of the equipments in the field only under the guidance of indications of the LED lamps without a need to look up a fiber-port distribution table and identify serial numbers of optical fibers and ports in advance. With the system and the method of the present invention, the ports of the equipments can be quickly and correctly interconnected in a manner of blind plug installation.
Furthermore, the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention can automatically find the misconnection of the optical fiber in time and guide the operator to insert the misconnected optical fiber to the correct port again.
Also, the system according to the above embodiments of the present invention can achieve quick interconnection between equipments with the optical fibers, especially, in quantities, and has the ability of preventing error or displaying error.
It should be appreciated for those skilled in this art that the above embodiments are intended to be illustrated, and not restrictive. For example, many modifications may be made to the above embodiments by those skilled in this art, and various features described in different embodiments may be freely combined with each other without conflicting in configuration or principle.
Although several exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.
As used herein, an element recited in the singular and proceeded with the word "a" or "an" should be understood as not excluding plural of said elements or steps, unless such exclusion is explicitly stated. Furthermore, references to "one embodiment" of the present invention are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Moreover, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, embodiments "comprising" or "having" an element or a plurality of elements having a particular property may include additional such elements not having that property.

Claims

What is claimed is,
1. A system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, comprising:
optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports (Al, A2 AM) of each object
(A, B X) to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports;
a plurality of indicators (LED Al, LED A2 LED AM) provided at the plurality of ports of each object (A, B X) to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and
a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators, wherein
before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects (A, B) to be interconnected;
a first termination of a current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of first ports of one object (A) of the pair of objects (A, B), and the server management device obtains a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port and correlates the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object (B) to be correctly connected with the current first port; and
a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object (B) of the pair of objects (A, B), and the server management device obtains a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port and determines whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code.
2. The system according to claim 1,
wherein each of the indicators of each object is controlled to have a plurality of different indication states for indicating different operations for the respective port.
3. The system according to claim 2, wherein
before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device controls all indicators at respective ports of each object to be connected to hold at a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of each object.
4. The system according to claim 3, wherein
when the first termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into the current first port of one of the pair of objects, the server management device controls the indicator corresponding to the current first port of the one object to switch into a second indication state different from the first indication state and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the second indication state.
5. The system according to claim 4, wherein
when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is not a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state; and
the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the predetermined indication state.
6. The system according to claim 4, wherein
when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of first and second current ports correctly connected after a predetermined period.
7. The system according to claim 4, wherein
in the case where a first termination of a current optical fiber has been inserted into a third object which is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected, when a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected, the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls indicators of all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third object that is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected and should be removed from the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected.
8. The system according to claim 4, wherein
when two or more fibers are incorrectly inserted into two or more second ports of the other object to be connected, the server management device controls indicators of the two or more second ports of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator to remove the two or more fibers from the other object until only one of the two or more fibers is left, and when only one of the two or more fibers is left, the server management device controls an indicator of a second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the left one fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state.
9. The system according to claim 5, wherein
the predetermined indication state comprises a fourth indication state different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the third indication state.
10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the indicator comprises a lamp, a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the indicator comprises a LED lamp.
12. The system according to claim 11, wherein
the first indication state is a state selected from a slow flashing state, a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period, and a normally lighting state;
the second indication state is a state, different from the first indication state, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state;
the third indication state is a state, different from the first and second indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state; and
the fourth indication state is a state, different from the first, second and third indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state.
13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the first indication state is the slow flashing state, the second indication state is the normally lighting state, the third indication state is the quick flashing state, and the fourth indication state is the quick-slow flashing state.
14. The system according to claim 1, wherein
the operator inserts the other ends of the fibers into the ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be connected under the guidance of the indicators after all ports of one of the pair of objects to be connected have been randomly inserted with fibers.
15. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of tags further contains an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the server management device comprises only a central processing unit communicated with all objects to be interconnected.
17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the server management device comprising:
a central processing unit; and
a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective objects, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication state of the indicators of the respective objects.
18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the tag comprises a RFID tag.
19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the objects comprise different equipments or different regions or modules on a single equipment.
20. The system according to claim 19,
wherein the equipment comprises an optical fiber distributing equipment, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a distribution fiber for the optical fiber distributing equipment.
21. The system according to claim 1,
wherein at least one of the ports of at least one of the objects to be connected comprises a port of a portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
22. A method for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, comprising steps of:
SI 00: providing a system for interconnecting objects with optical fibers, the system comprising: optical fibers each having a first termination provided with a first tag and a second termination provided with a second tag, the first and second tags of each optical fiber contain an unique and the same matching code or different but correlated matching codes;
a plurality of readers provided at a plurality of ports (Al, A2 AM) of each object
(A, B X) to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for reading the matching codes from the tags of the optical fibers inserted into respective ports;
a plurality of indicators (LED Al, LED A2 LED AM) provided at the plurality of ports of each object (A, B X) to be connected by the optical fibers, respectively, for indicating states of respective ports; and
a server management device for processing data read from the objects and controlling the states of the indicators;
S200: before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device builds up a correct one-to-one correlation among the ports of a pair of objects (A, B) to be interconnected;
S300: randomly inserting a first termination of a current optical fiber into one of first ports of one object (A) of the pair of objects (A, B), obtaining a first matching code of the first tag of the first termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current first port, and correlating the first matching code to the current first port and a second port of the other object (B) to be correctly connected with the current first port by means of the server management device; and
S400: randomly inserting a second termination of the current optical fiber into one of second ports of the other object (B) of the pair of objects (A, B), obtaining a second matching code of the second tag of the second termination of the current optical fiber through the reader corresponding to the current second port, and determining whether the current second port of the other object is the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code by means of the server management device, if not, the server management device controls the indicator of the second port correctly correlated to the second matching code to switch into a predetermined indication state, so as to guide an operator to correctly insert the second termination of the current optical fiber into the second port of the other object correctly correlated to the second matching code.
23. The method according to claim 22,
wherein each of the indicators of each object is controlled to have a plurality of different indication states for indicating different operations for the respective port.
24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising a step S201 between the step S200 and the step S300:
S201 : before inserting the optical fiber, the server management device controls all indicators at respective ports of each object to be connected to hold at a first indication state and repeatedly scans a connection state of the respective ports of each object.
25. The method according to claim 24,
during the step S300, when the first termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into the current first port of one of the pair of objects, the server management device controls the indicator corresponding to the current first port of the one object to switch into a second indication state different from the first indication state and controls the indicator corresponding to the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the second indication state.
26. The method according to claim 25,
during the step of S400, when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is not a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls the indicator of the second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state; and
the third indication state is different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the predetermined indication state.
27. The method according to claim 25,
during the step of S400, when the second termination of the current optical fiber is inserted into a current second port of the other object, if the current second port of the other object is a second port correlated to the matching code of the current optical fiber, then the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into the second indication state, and turns off the indicators of the pair of first and second current ports correctly connected after a predetermined period.
28. The method according to claim 25, wherein
in the case where a first termination of a current optical fiber has been inserted into a third equipment which is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected, when a second termination of the current optical fiber is randomly inserted into one of second ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected, the server management device controls the indicator of the current second port of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls indicators of all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator that the current optical fiber has been inserted into the third object that is not any one of the pair of objects to be interconnected and should be removed from the other object of the pair of objects to be interconnected.
29. The method according to claim 25, wherein
when two or more fibers are incorrectly inserted into two or more second ports of the other object to be connected, the server management device controls indicators of the two or more second ports of the other object to switch into a third indication state, and controls all empty second ports of the other object to switch into the second indication state, so as to notice the operator to remove the two or more fibers from the other object until only one of the two or more fibers is left, and when only one of the two or more fibers is left, the server management device controls an indicator of a second port of the other object correlated to the matching code of the left one fiber to switch into the predetermined indication state.
30. The method according to claim 26, wherein
the predetermined indication state comprises a fourth indication state different from the first indication state, the second indication state and the third indication state.
31. The method according to claim 30, wherein the indicator comprises a lamp, a display, a sounder, a vibrator, or combination thereof.
32. The method according to claim 31, wherein the indicator comprises a LED lamp.
33. The method according to claim 32, wherein
the first indication state is a state selected from a slow flashing state, a quick flashing state having a frequency higher than that of the slow flashing state, a quick-slow flashing state having a frequency equal to that of the slow flashing state in one half period and a frequency equal to that of the quick flashing state in the other half period, and a normally lighting state;
the second indication state is a state, different from the first indication state, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state;
the third indication state is a state, different from the first and second indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state; and
the fourth indication state is a state, different from the first, second and third indication states, selected from the slow flashing state, the quick flashing state, the quick-slow flashing state, and the normally lighting state.
34. The method according to claim 33, wherein
the first indication state is the slow flashing state, the second indication state is the normally lighting state, the third indication state is the quick flashing state, and the fourth indication state is the quick-slow flashing state.
35. The method according to claim 22, wherein
the operator inserts the other terminations of the fibers into the ports of the other object of the pair of objects to be connected under the guidance of the indicators after all ports of one of the pair of objects to be connected have been randomly inserted with fibers.
36. The method according to claim 22, wherein each of tags further contains an unique identification code for differentiating respective tags.
37. The method according to claim 22, wherein the server management device comprises only a central processing unit communicated with all objects to be interconnected.
38. The method according to claim 22, wherein the server management device comprising:
a central processing unit; and
a single-stage or a multi-stage secondary processing unit communicated between the central processing unit and the respective objects, for monitoring the connection state of the ports and controlling the indication state of the indicators of the respective objects.
39. The method according to claim 22, wherein the tag comprises a RFID tag.
40. The method according to claim 22, wherein the objects comprise different equipments or different regions or modules on a single equipment.
41. The method according to claim 40,
wherein the equipment comprises an optical fiber distributing equipment, and wherein the optical fiber comprises a distribution fiber for the optical fiber distributing equipment.
42. The method according to claim 22,
wherein at least one of the ports of at least one of the objects to be connected comprises a port of a portable electronic device communicated with the server management device in real time.
PCT/IB2014/061888 2013-06-06 2014-06-02 System and method for interconnecting objects with optical fibers WO2014195846A1 (en)

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