Patent ID: 7460978

Claim:
A method for rack position determination using acoustics comprising: ultrasonically ranging a first target wall in a data center from a host rack enclosure to acquire range data for the first target wall; ultrasonically ranging a second target wall in the data center from the host rack enclosure to acquire range data for the second target wall; translating the range data for the first target wall and second target wall into position coordinates for the host rack enclosure; and, forwarding the position coordinates to a system administrator for the data center over a coupled data communications network, wherein ultrasonically ranging a second target wall in the data center from the host rack enclosure to acquire range data for the second target wall, comprises: determining that the range data for the second target wall cannot be acquired; retrieving a distance between the second target wall and an opposite target wall from a cooperating rack enclosure over the coupled data communications network; ultrasonically ranging the opposite target wall in the data center from the host rack enclosure to acquire range data for the opposite target wall; and, deducing the range data for the second target wall with the distance and the range data for the opposite target wall.