The first item inside a telecommunications room that will draw your attention is the large bundle
of cables coming into the closet. The bundle contains the cables that run from the closet to the
individual stations and may also contain cables that run from the room to other rooms or closets
in the building. The bundle of cables is usually bound together with straps and leads the LAN
cables to a patch panel, which connects the individual wires within a particular cable to network
ports on the front of the panel. These ports can then be connected to the network equipment
(hubs, switches, routers, and so on), or two ports can be connected together with a patch cable
Some are
mounted on a wall and are known as surface-mount patch panels (also called punch-down blocks).
Others are mounted in a rack and are called rack-mount patch panels. Each type has its own benefits.
Surface-mount panels are cheaper and easier to work with, but they can’t hold as many
cables and ports. Rack-mount panels are more flexible, but they are more expensive. Surfacemount
patch panels make good choices for smaller (less than 50 drops) cabling installations.
Rack-mount patch panels make better choices for larger installations. Patch panels are the
main products used in LAN installations today because they are extremely cost effective and
allow great flexibility when connecting workstations.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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