A typical communication system usually involves hundreds or even thousands of end users located at different sites or places sharing the service provided by the same server system. Some end users may connect to the server system from the internet through modems. Some end users may connect to the server system via local servers which may be far away from the server system. Some end users may connect to the server system by using hubs which may be located in the same building but different floors of the server system. Some end users may connect to the server system through a jack or socket near their working tables. Some end users may use wireless networking devices and wireless hubs to access the server system. Thousands of wires coming from different locations are gathered and connected to a distribution frame such as a patch panel stack. Management of the wires (or cables), e.g., identifying which jack on the patch panel is connected to which end user located at what remote location, is thus a critical issue in such a large server system.
Conventional methods for wire pair identification are labor-intensive and time-consuming. The network jack in the working area could not be rapidly located to the associated network receptacle, leading to troublesome locating of the wire pairs. U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,643 assigned to the Assignee of the present application discloses a group wiring patching system and a method for wire pair identification. The group wiring patching system comprises a testing device and a group wiring patch device that has built-in light emitting means and filtering means coupled with wire pair receptacles. When a testing voltage is applied to the circuit of the light emitting means, the light emitting means will emit light for assisting wire pair identification. The filtering means can minimize or even eliminate loop back shorting resulted by the circuit of the connected light emitting means when communication frequency signals or low voltage signals are applied thereto. Therefore, the group wiring patching device is able to perform ordinary signal transmitting functions without the need to remove the light emitting means after the wire pair identification process is done.
However, when the wiring procedure is completed (i.e., connection to servers is completed), relocating the wire pairs of the wiring system would cause short circuit, as the voltage of the testing signals is a voltage of low direct current that will result in low impedance of the circuits for the electric components in the servers. Hence, the light emitting means built in the group wiring system could not function. As a result, relocating of the wire pairs of the wiring system requires removal of all of the server connection, which is labor-intensive and time-consuming.