Cable Termination; Patch Panel - Cabletron Systems 100BASE-FX Cabling Manual

Cabling Devices

Cable Termination

Cable termination equipment provides points where facility cabling may be easily
connected to jumper cabling. Cable termination equipment basically provides
endpoints for the raw facility cabling.

Patch Panel

A patch panel is a piece of cable termination equipment which connects raw
facility cabling to standard ports or connectors. These ports or connectors may
then be used for simplified connections to jumper cabling, allowing a single,
manageable point of access for several cables.
Patch panels are typically built to be mounted in a relay rack or enclosed
equipment cabinet. The front surface, or faceplate, of the patch panel provides a
series of modular ports or connectors, depending upon the media being
connected. The back of the patch panel is made up of a number of connection
points for facility cable.
The most common types of patch panels are those for twisted pair cabling (UTP
or STP) and for fiber optic cabling.
RJ45 Ports
1845n31
13-4
Figure 13-3. Twisted Pair Patch Panel
Front
Rear
UTP Wire Connection Points
Cable Termination