USB Port Power Control for Persistent Device Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data centers face challenges in managing and configuring IT devices due to their diverse interfaces, network protocols, and physical connections, leading to complexity and inefficiency in tracking, configuring, and clustering these devices.
Innovation Solution
An infrastructure management system that processes network communication from data center components, employing device information to determine actions, and features such as individual mapping of communication ports to unique logical device names and controlled power supply to USB ports.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple IT device concentrator hardware units are deployed to connect diverse IT devices with different interfaces and protocols, then the system can support more device types and interfaces, but the device complexity and management overhead increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal USB concentrator hardware unit that can handle multiple IT device types and communication protocols through a single device. The system provides adaptable interface support including USB, serial, and network interfaces, allowing one concentrator to replace multiple specialized hardware units. This multi-functional approach maintains versatility while reducing the number of separate devices needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The USB concentrator acts as an intermediary device between diverse IT devices and the management system. It provides protocol translation and interface adaptation, mediating between different communication standards (USB, serial, network) and presenting a unified interface for device management. This mediator approach simplifies complexity by abstracting the diversity of underlying protocols.
2Reliability
If manual tracking and configuration methods are used for IT devices in data centers, then existing tools can be utilized, but the time consumption and operational efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The USB concentrator implements automatic device detection and identification capabilities that eliminate manual tracking requirements. The system automatically discovers connected IT devices, identifies their types and interfaces, and configures appropriate communication parameters without human intervention. This self-service approach maintains configuration accuracy while dramatically reducing setup time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates automatic feedback mechanisms that monitor device status, connection states, and communication quality in real-time. This continuous feedback enables dynamic adjustment of configuration parameters and automatic troubleshooting, ensuring reliable device tracking and configuration while reducing the time needed for manual evaluation and setup.
Data Source
AI summary
A control system for individually controlling one or more universal serial bus (USB) ports. The control system may include at least one USB interface that provides at least one USB port, at least one power control unit in communication with the at least one USB interface, and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media for storing computer-readable program code and a configuration dataset. The control system may further include a processor device in communication with the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, the at least one power control unit and the at least one USB interface. The processor device may be operative with the computer-readable program code to retrieve configuration data from the configuration dataset and control power supply to the at least one USB port in accordance with the configuration data by enabling or disabling the at least one power control unit.