What's the Purpose of a Patch Panel

[marks70]

I was looking at our server and rack at work today and began wondering what the purpose of a patch panel was. The cables from all the workstations are patched on to the back of the patch panel. Then patch cables are plugged into the other side of the patch panel, with the other end of the patch cables plugged into a switch. My question is: Why couldn't the cables from all the workstations just be plugged straight into the switch? What function does the patch panel serve?

 

[Valhalla1]

Ideally, according to the TIA/EIA standards, the workstations should be plugged into a wall jack with a patch cable. The wall jacks should be each connected to the patch panel, and then the patch panel should be connected to the switch with patch cables. The purpose is so that (I guess) you can easily move/remove workstations, switches, and other gear from the rack, but the horizontal cabling (the length between the wall jacks and the patch panel) to remain unchanged.

think of the patch panel as just several wall jacks lined up.

its similar to your phone - you plug your phone into a jack, its not as if there is just one loooooooong phone cable that goes from your phone to the telco (theoretically of course)

 

[Agamar]

Well, the reason is mostly for easier management. Most everyone will number the socket that the computer plugs into, and then that number corresponds with the number on the patch panel. That way you know what cable to look at when a computer is having problems logging in and such.

 

[vi edit]

Patch panels also make for fairly easy expansion of your network. When an office first opens up, most places will have one or two network connections wired for each office/cubicle within the building. But, in the beginning might only be using half of your physical connections. With the patch panel, you run a cable through the walls from all of the offices to the patch panel in the back room/closet whatever. Without the patch panel, you would have a bunch of loose ends dangling all over the place for offices that do not yet have a computer networked within them.

The patch panel allows you to make a connection to the hub as needed. They make it very nice for organizing and minimizing the confusion of cords running all over the place. It's a confusing mess with just the 50 or so cables running through my office. Imagine what it would be like with 200+ cables dumping straight down to a hub with no crossover in between :Q

 

[R0b0tN1k]

What, then? Are you gonna have a whole ton of cables hangin outta the ceiling all over the floor? I'm not even going to start thinking about that mess. It doesn't hurt to have patch panels (unless they suck), so why not? If they had no purpose, they wouldn't be installed in every comm room of every company on the whole damn planet!

 

[marks70]

I appreciate everyone's responses, but to me it seems most everyone explained what a patch panel is and its benefits. I would still like to know why you couldn't just plug all connections from workstations DIRECTLY into a hub/switch WITHOUT going through a patch panel. Going directly into the hub/switch would actually create less mess since you wouldn't need patch cables from the patch panel to the hub or switch.

Sorry for being retarded.

 

[cavingjan]

I'll take a stab. IF you can keep all the direct cables in a nice neat little pile that is well labeled, you have a shot at making it less of a mess. I only have a 12 port patch panel in the basement of the house nad I've noticed how tidy it is keeping it. I can keep all of the excess wiring behind the wall. I only keep 4 extra unused ports plugged in. I'm also able to convert one of the network connectinos into a phone jack for the second phoneline until I get broadband. I only have two 4 port hubs right now so I have to shuffle patch cables around to where I'm using connections. This will probably change when I get the 24 port hub in a few weeks. BTW All of the connections in the basement will probably just be cables but I think it will be nearly as clean of wiring. Hope this helps.

 

[CTR]

Category 5 specification calls for a patch panel to terminate the horizontal cable run at the equipment room. Also calls for wall jacks to terminate horizontal run on the other end. Also calls for stranded patch cables at each end of the horizontal run to connect patch panel/wall jack to active device.

Solid-conductor cable, such as you buy on the 1000' spools, has great conductivity with very little attenuation and crosstalk. If you take a piece of this wonderful cable and bend it at a 90-degree angle and back to flat 4 or 5 times, you have very likely broken the solid conductors inside the little plastic insulation. So now instead of a nice solid piece of copper you have several pieces of copper butting up against each other. Not good for attenuation and crosstalk.

Stranded-conductor cable, such as you see in patch cables, has higher levels of attenuation and crosstalk. But you can practically tie it in a knot and it still works fine.

Any adds/moves/changes on your LAN will probably require you to move cables. Moving and re-routing stranded patch cables is easy and safe. When you start jacking around with the solid stuff, it will eventually break and start performing poorly.

So a patch panel is EXTREMELY important in that it allows you to transition from solid to stranded copper media at the point where the adds/moves/changes will take place.

Hope that clarifies some of the confusion.

(edited for spelling)

 

[IceBlast]

Good job CTR. Let me add one detail. The back side of patch panels and the wall jacks use an IDC (insulation displacement connector) system. This may requires a punch-down tool to terminate. Stranded cable cannot be used with these connectors.

The TIA-568-A standard recommends you use stranded cable for patch cords, but allows solid. The trade-off is that while the solid conductors may provide superior electrical performance, the strandedcords provide better flex life (and less call backs).

So we put short patch cords at the locations where they are moved and can be damaged. Then we can replace that short cord without touching the horizontal cable.

 

[stash]

i just seriously hope you are NOT the network administrator, if you are looking around at your racks and wondering what everything does.