Real time asset tracking in the data center

Abstract

The importance and difficultly of asset tracking make it worthy of attention. We focus on data centers consisting of vertical racks where each rack may accommodate a variety of equipment. We describe an asset tracking system which automatically detects and identifies equipment within rack; has "pinpoint" accuracy, i.e., location resolution equals asset size; relays this information to possibly several management back-ends; includes a backend application that maintains a location history for all equipment; and uses a visualization tool to display both the current state and the history of deployment.The solution features a flexible architecture that simplifies the connection with both existing and future asset management applications. The architecture supports simple configuration, load balancing, and redundancy. Care has been taken to use widely recognized standards wherever possible.

Technical and economic aspect of RFID implementation for asset tracking

“…The re-engineered scenarios were also grounded on the literature describing examples of RFID implementation for asset tracking (Brignone et al, 2007;EPCGlobal, 2004;European Commission, 2007a, 2007bZIH, 2007). Then, they were discussed and validated by the panel through meetings.…”

“…It is argued in literature that radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and electronic product code (EPC) network (EPCGlobal, 2004) have the potential to substantially improve the performance of asset management (Brignone et al, 2007;European Commission, 2007b. By identifying each asset with an attached RFID tag, accurate and timely information about its deployment and status can be stored and retrieved, thus reducing asset losses, costs of equipment acquisition, insurance, inventory and floor space leasing (Brignone et al, 2007).…”

“…By identifying each asset with an attached RFID tag, accurate and timely information about its deployment and status can be stored and retrieved, thus reducing asset losses, costs of equipment acquisition, insurance, inventory and floor space leasing (Brignone et al, 2007). Moreover, RFID tagging would allow the efficiency of several processes to be improved, thanks to the removal of manual operations for asset checking or document issuing (Bylinsky, 2000;Jones et al, 2004).…”

Feasibility Study of Surface Acoustic Wave RFID for Information Processing Asset Management

“…The optical readout systems have the advantage of low cost, widespread use, and established status; but they restricted line of sight There are also research groups who are focusing on asset management, especially data centers, which are consisting of vertical racks where each rack may accommodate a variety of equipment. Tracking physical assets in a data center is an essential component of secure, reliable and efficient operations [6]. For example, if a computer server contains valuable and/or sensitive information, such as Social Security Numbers, an enterprise would like to know the whereabouts of that server at all times.…”

Asset Localization in Data Centers Using WUSB Radios

“…In this paper, a wireless universal serial bus(WUSB) based solution is exploited that uses UWB radios integrated into the server and does not rely on any external infrastructure. HP has developed a solution based on an array of passive RFID tags attached to each server [2]. The solution requires one radio frequency identification (RFID) reader per server which communicates with the rack level data collector.…”