Important Things You Should Know About Patch Panel

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 Achieving efficient cable management is
the dream of every IT technician, and this is where a patch panel comes in
handy. A Cat6 patch panel realizes the connection, scheduling, and allocation
of cable links. Through this article, you will get a thorough understanding of
the patch panels.

 

How does the patch panel work?

Patch
panels are also dubbed as patch bays and jack
fields. A patch panel is a network component that connects incoming and
outgoing LAN lines or other electronic, communication, and electrical systems.
If you are mulling over setting up a wired network with several wall ports,
patch panels can offer you neat, simple, and easy to manage solutions. Based on
ports, these are the most frequently used patch panels:

 

12 Port Patch Panel

24 Port Patch Panel

48 Port Patch Panel

When you deploy a Cat6 patch panel, it
bundles multiple ports together and connects outgoing and incoming lines. If
you have deployed a patch panel in your networks and want to arrange circuits,
all you need to do is to plug or unplug the concerned patch cord.

 

The Importance of Patch Panel In Your
Network

Usually, patch panels are connected to
the network racks, either below or above switches. To quickly connect ethernet
cables, a Cat6a patch panel comes with ports. They come in multiple
configurations and sizes, and you can customize a Cat6a patch panel for
different networks.

 

You can gauge the importance of patch
panels from the fact that if something goes wrong with them, the whole network
collapses.

 

As far as the number of ports in the
patch panels is concerned, it varies between 12 ports to 96 ports. And when it
comes to large networks, you may need hundreds of ports. Besides facilitating
smooth networking, these awesome machines also help technicians by offering
flexible and convenient routing options.

 

Copper Patch Panels and Fiber Patch
Panels

Patch panels are used in both fiber and
copper cabling networks.

 

First, let’s discuss copper patch
panels. 8-pin modular ports are used in the construction on one side, whereas
the 110-insulation displacement connector blocks are used on the other side. The
wires that are coming into the patch panels are terminated. The 8-pin modular
connector is plugged into the ports on the other side to correspond to the
terminated wires. It is pertinent here to mention that each pair of wires has
an independent port in the copper Cat6a patch panel. On the other hand, fiber
patch panels need two ports for each pair.

 

Shielded vs. Unshielded patch panels

For environments with high EMI
interference, you should use a shielded patch panel.

 

A shielded patch panel comprises a
metal panel and snap-in shielded keystone jacks. Shielded patch panels are
often used with shielded ethernet cables to ensure better signal transmission
performance. Depending on the number of ports, you can categorize the shielded
Cat6 patch panel into 12-port, 24-port, and 48-port types.

 

Those patch panels that come with
snap-in unshielded keystone jacks are classified as unshielded patch panels.
Just like shielded patch panels, you can classify unshielded patch panels
depending on the number of ports, i-e, 12-port unshielded patch panel, 24-port
unshielded patch panel, and 48-port unshielded patch panel.

 

With demand for effective cabling
growing at a rapid pace, patch panels are also witnessing more advancements.
Here at New York Cables, we make top-quality patch panels that are TIA/EIA
verified and RoHS compliant. To ensure optimum performance, we have extensively
tested our patch panels in the field and laboratories.