Transcript
Why use Patch Panels and Cross Connect Blocks The technical reason to implement Patch Panels and Cross Connect Blocks is to provide a robust, reliable management solution. Patch panels and Cross Connect Blocks provide a reliable, documented, testable, traceable access point for cable management, that when implemented correctly allows for expansion and correct installation in compliance with the Category Ethernet standards. Recognizing that normally a network or telephone circuit requires 1:1 connections from the panel or block to the switch, the benefits of a structured patch / cross connect system are: 1. Flexibility 2. Pull relief, if someone breaks the cable or pulls on it, the switch or PBX doesn't get broken. 3. Patch cord cable is a different construction (stranded vs. solid) in comparison to the cables you install in the building. Solid core in a crimped connector tends to disconnect with minimal flexing. 4. Patch cords are more resistant to physical damage. 5. Facilitates upgrade or replacement of a switch ‐ just install it in the rack, configure it, and move the patch cables from the old switch to the new. 6. Ease of management with less possibility to become unmanageable with a properly labeled patch / cross connect system. 7. Ability to accommodate unusual circuit configurations i.e. a crossover connection or serial port. 8. Less error prone. 9. Provides the facility of "localization" using a dedicated fixed number of switch ports to a panel, and this panel is meant to connect nodes that are located in a particular location. The cabling from switch to patch panel becomes fixed and permanent, can be neatly laid out, thus better understood and managed. Servers or workstations at that location connect to the patch panel ‐or even their own work desk port which extends from the patch panel ‐ using shorter and easier‐to‐manage patch cables. It simply makes the distribution of network wiring much less messy and chaotic. As a practical matter, think of a wall jack as a mini‐patch panel. You wouldn't run a line from your switch directly to a particular PC, correct? Similarly, you wouldn't run a cable from a wall jack directly to a switch. If you did run a cable directly to a PC, you'd run into the inevitable problems like "what happens when the person wants to move their computer three meters and the line isn't long enough?" Likewise, if you run a line directly to a switch, what happens when you need to plug that same line into a different switch in a nearby rack or you change the switch and it is not the same layout? Suddenly, the cable is 10 centimeters short! So, any run through a building should be terminated at both ends... at patch panels or cross connect fields and / or wall jacks. These runs are used for covering distance, and should not limit how you arrange the hardware that will eventually connect to these lines.
