There is no doubt that patch panels are the important elements in cabling systems. No matter how big or how small your business or home network is, you can’t make your cabling system tidy without the use of patch panels. Serving as the nerve center of the cabling network, copper patch panel allows you to terminate cable elements and allows the signal to be connected to the intended destination. This article will guide you to know more about this crucial component.
A patch panel is one panel essentially with an array of ports on it. Each port connects, via a patch cable, to another port located elsewhere in your building. If you want to set up a wired network that includes multiple wall ports in various rooms, a patch panel in a central location can provide a simple, neat and easy-to-manage solution.
Patch panel works as a mounted hardware assembly that contains multiple network ports to connect and manage incoming and outgoing lines. In the application of LAN, patch panels can realize the connection between different computers or computers and outside lines. In addition, those lines allow LANs to connect with wide area networks (WANs) or the Internet. With the use of a patch panel, you can simply plug and unplug the appropriate patch cords to arrange circuits.
Patch panel is widely used in the telecommunications section of a building, which makes telecommunications networks managing easier. As the major link, a patch panel collects data and routes it to the intended destination. If a malfunction of a patch panel occurs, the entire system may fail, which explains how crucial it is.
Ports are central parts of patch panels because they provide physical entry and exit points for data. Most patch panels have either 24 or 48 ports. And some panels can include 96 ports or more. The number of ports on a panel is not subject to physical limit other than the room to place them. Here is a figure of 48 port Cat5e patch panel.
Patch panels can be used in fiber and copper cabling systems. So is there any difference between these two types of patch panels?
Copper patch panels are structured with 8-pin modular ports on one side and the 110-insulation displacement connector block on the other side. Wires comes into one side and are routed into intended destination from the other side. For the copper patch panel, each pair of wires has an independent port. While fiber patch panels are structured with two ports for a pair of wires. One port is used for transmitting signal and the other is used for receiving signal.
From the view of cost, copper patch panel is cheaper than fiber patch panel. While fiber patch panels are a lot easier to install and tend to be faster than copper patch panels, but this does not downplay the role played by the latter. The main function of a patch panel is to realize the connection, allocation and scheduling of cable links easily. No matter which type of patch panels you choose, they must be used according to practical situations.
Copper patch panel, as a kind of flexible and effective copper cable management tool, gains popularity in data center applications. Today, various types of copper patch panels can be found on the market. FS.COM provides different kinds of copper patch panels, such as 24 port Cat5e patch panel, 24 port Cat6 patch panel, 48 port Cat6 patch panel, etc.
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