The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 20, 1996
Filed:
Mar. 02, 1994
Karl Reinke, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Robert W Smith, Los Altos, CA (US);
SynOptics Communications, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for monitoring whether a cable is coupled to a port of a computer network. A free-running oscillator is initially set to a base frequency when a cable is not coupled to the port. If a cable is subsequently coupled to that port, the inherent capacitance of that cable loads one of the nodes associated with the oscillator. The result of this capacitance is that the oscillator is now running at a lower frequency. A frequency counter and threshold comparator are used to detect whether the oscillator frequency has fallen below a pre-determined frequency threshold. If the oscillator frequency has not fallen below this threshold, the port is not included in the network path. However, if the oscillator frequency has fallen below the threshold, this indicates that a cable has been coupled to the port. Consequently, the trunk port is inserted into the computer network's path.