Patent ID: 8384522

Claim:
A method of determining patch cord connectivity information, the method comprising: receiving a first signal from an RFID tag that is associated with a first patch cord at a first RFID antenna; comparing the strength of the received first signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of a plurality of connector ports at the first RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received first signal; receiving a second signal from the RFID tag at a second RFID antenna; comparing the strength of the received second signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports at the second RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received second signal; receiving a third signal from the RFID tag at a third RFID antenna, wherein the identification of the one of the plurality of connector ports that the first patch cord is connected to is based on the respective strengths of the received first, second and third signals comparing the strength of the received third signal to pre-stored signal strength data for each of the plurality of connector ports at the third RFID antenna to identify one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received third signal; and identifying the one of the plurality of connector ports that the first patch cord is connected to based on the identification of the one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received first signal and the identification of the one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received second signal and the identification of the one or more connector ports that have pre-stored signal strength data that closely matches the strength of the received third signal.