Patent ID: 8306935

Claim:
A physical infrastructure management system comprising: a physical infrastructure management server; at least one intelligent patch panel having a network connection to said physical infrastructure management server, said intelligent patch panel being installed in a network cabinet and having stored therein in a patch panel memory physical location information that represents the physical location in which the intelligent patch panel is installed; at least one piece of network equipment installed in said cabinet and connected to a patch port of said intelligent patch panel; at least one power outlet unit installed in said cabinet, said power outlet unit having a power outlet unit management port that is connected to said intelligent patch panel such that information about power consumption in said cabinet can be collected by said intelligent patch panel and associated with said cabinet, said power outlet unit further comprising a sensing and control port; and at least one environmental sensor connected to said sensing and control port of said power outlet unit, environmental data from said environmental sensor being collected by said intelligent patch panel and associated with said cabinet.