An Eye on the Copper Patch Panels

Are you tired of messy network? As the world embraces the increasingly faster data-rate network, IT managers felt great stress over the inability to organize and create a neat rack mounted environment. Patch panels allows the easy management of patch cables and link the cabling distribution areas, which paves the way for a refreshing new approach to a neat optical network.

 

Patch panels are usually installed on enclosures or racks to provide an easy way to organize connections. Patch panels are available in many different variations. Key design variations include:

 

Jack module type

Patch panel material type

Unshielded patch panels vs. shielded patch panels

Flat patch panels vs. angled patch panels

Standard patch panels vs. high-density patch panels

Port labeling

Patch panels also allow several cable connectors to be used (LC for fiber and RJ45 for copper). Today’s article will be concentrated on the illustration of the copper patch panels, especially cat5e patch panels and cat6 patch panels.

 

Copper Patch Panels

 

The cat5e and cat6 shielded and unshielded patch panels are the commonly used copper patch panels on the market that are suitable for communication socket interconnection between equipment room, working area and crossover terminal connection. This patch panels use the copper patch cord to contains ports to connect and manage incoming and outgoing Ethernet cables. Besides the shielded and unshielded patch panels, copper patch panels include flat and angled types from appearance design.

 

Flat patch panels help horizontal cable managers to organize and route cables into vertical managers. Angled patch panels are easy for cable termination and can improve patch cord routing. They serve as alternatives for management that need no rack space for horizontal management. The angled design increases rack density, managing high-density applications in one-fourth the area needed for conventional cable management systems. But angled panels are not good for cabinet installation due to the front depth requirements.

 

Figure 1 shows the angled patch panels that allow cables to be mounted directly into the vertical cable manager. Angled patch panels do not need the additional cable manager to be installed above and below the patch panels, which makes them perfect for high-density areas. Next part will go on to talk about the cat5e and cat6 patch panels individually and specifically.

 

Cat5e Patch Panels

 

Cat5e patch panels allows fast and easy installation and cable management to copper Gigabit switches. It is compliant with TIA/EIA 568 industry specifications and features both T-568A and T-568B wiring configurations. Cat5e patch panels are ideal for Ethernet network applications. Figure 2 displays the 24 Ports Cat5e Feed-Through Patch Panel, UTP Unshielded, 1U Rack Mount.

 

This type of patch panel mount the patch panel using four rack screws. With the module design, feed-through module can easily achieve high density access. No punch down is required as well. Last but not the least, UTP network cable inserts directly, simple operation, to achieve seamless integration between cables.

 

Cat6 Patch Panels

 

Cat6 patch panels deliver a steady 250 MHz connection to copper Gigabit switches. Ideal for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet and Copper Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T) network applications. Backward compatible with Cat. 3, 4, 5, and 5e cabling. Cat6 patch panels also meet the TIA/EIA 568 industry specification. Each patch panel terminates with standard 110 termination tools on the rear, which allows quick installations. Cat6 patch panels are available in 6-port and 8-port module groupings, in 8, 12, 24, and 48-port sizes.

 

Conclusion

 

This article provided some detailed information about copper patch panels. When selecting between the cat5e and cat6 patch panels, you should consider the density supported (24 ports or 48 ports), shielded or unshielded and the compatibility with your racks. fiber-mart.COM provides the cost-effective cat5e and cat6 patch panels in 24 ports, 48 ports per 1U or 2U panel. If you have any interest, please contact us directly.

Fiber Patch Cable Selection Guide for 40G QSFP+ Transceivers

by Fiber-MART.COM

Numerous things need to be planned and designed for 40G migration. Whether the switches can support such a high speed Ethernet? Which kind of optical transceiver work best on the switches? Which optical transceiver is more cost-saving? Although most servers provided today can support 40G and 40G QSFP+ transceiver (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable transceiver) are considered to be the most economic and effective transceivers for 40G migration, new problem still arises.

 

Patch Cords Matters to 40G

No matter how advanced the switches are, they all need to be connected together to form the whole 40G transmission network. To accomplish the connections between these switches, patch cords are usually linked to fiber optic transceivers which are plugged in Ethernet switches (as shown in the following picture). The quality of these connections can largely affect the reliability and stability of the whole 40G network. However, connectivity of 40G is much more complex than ever. Thus selecting the proper fiber patch cables for 40G network is more difficult and becomes a big issue in 40G migration. As mentioned, QSFP+ transceivers are suggested for 40G, this article will provide as detailed as possible about fiber patch cable selection for 40G QSFP+ transceivers.

 

Selecting Patch Cords for 40G QSFP+ Transceivers

Patch cords selection is a big issue to 40G not only because the switch connections necessity, but also because of the transmission principle of the fiber optic signals and the high density trend of 40G transmission. Several important factors should be taken into account when selecting patch cords for 40G QSFP+ transceivers, which are cable type, connector type and switch port.

 

Cable Type

 

Performances of optical signals with different wavelengths are often quite different. Even optical signals with the same wavelength perform totally different when they run through different fiber optic cables. Thus, the selection of the cable type is essential.

 

A typical question our customer asked when buying a fiber optical patch cords for 40G QSFP+ transceiver can illustrate this point clearly. Can a 40GBASE universal QSFP+ transceiver working on wavelength of 850nm be used with OM1 patch cords? The answer is yes, but not suggested. Why? As the optical signal transmission distance gets shorter as the data rate increases. The transmission distance and quality would be limited by using OM1 optical cable with 40G QSFP+ transceiver. OM1 cable is only suggested for 100 Mb/s and 1000Mb/s transmission. Two upgraded cables—OM3 and OM4 are suggested for 40G QSFP+ transceivers in short distance.

 

IEEE has announced standards for 40G transmission in both long distance and short distance, which are 40GBASE-SR4 and 40GBASE-LR4. (SR stands for short-reach and LR stands for long reach). The latter is suggested for 40G transmission over single-mode fiber in long distance up to 10km. The former is for 40G transmission in short distance over multimode fiber—OM3 (up to 100 meters) and OM4 (up to 150 meters). OM3 and OM4, which are usually aqua-colored, are accepted economic solutions for 40G in short distance with lower insertion loss and higher bandwidth.

 

Connector Type

 

The connector type of the patch cords should depend on the interface of 40G QSFP+ transceiver. Currently there are two interfaces commonly adopted by 40G QSFP+ transceiver which are MTP and LC. Usually 40G QSFP+ transceiver with MPO interface is designed for short transmission distance and LC for long transmission distance. However, several 40G QSFP+ transceivers like 40GBASE-PLR4 and 40GBASE-PLRL4 have MPO interfaces to support long transmission distance.

 

High density is the most obvious characteristic of 40G transmission, which is largely reflected in the MTP connectors on patch cords used with 40G QSFP+ transceiver. As QSFP+ transceiver uses four 10G channels to achieve the 40G transmission, thus 4 pairs of fibers are used and the 12-fiber MTP connectors can provide a time-save and stable solution for 40G QSFP+ transceivers. However, for multi-fiber connection, polarity should be considered for the selection of the patch cord. Here provide another article named “Understanding Polarity in MPO System” specifically explained MTP patch cords polarity for your reference.

 

However, to meet the market needs, 40G QSFP+ transceiver with LC interface is also available. This type of QSFP transceiver uses four lanes with each carrying 10G in 1310nm window multiplexed to achieve 40G transmission. For this type, patch cable with duplex LC connector should be used.

 

Switch Port

 

The importance of network flexibility gradually reveals as the speed of Ethernet increases. When it comes to 40G, network flexibility becomes an urgent issue which is closely related with applications. Right selection of patch cords for 40G QSFP+ transceiver can increase the network flexibility largely and effectively. Here offer two most common examples in 40G applications. One is 40G QSFP+ to 40G QSFP+ cabling, the other one is 40G QSFP+ to SFP+ cabling.

 

For distance up to 100m, the 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ transceiver can be used with OM3 fiber patch cable attached with a MPO one each end.

For distance up to 150m, the 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ transceiver can be used with OM4 fiber patch cable attached with a MPO one each end.

For distance up to 10km, the 40GBASE-LR4 QSFP+ transceiver can be used with single-mode fiber with LC connectors. The picture above shows the transmission of 40GBASE-LR4 QSFP+ transceiver with LC connector over single-mode fiber.

It’s very common that 40G ports is needed to be connected with 10G port. In this case, fan out patch cable with MTP connector on one end and four LC duplex connectors on the other end is suggested.

 

Conclusion

Cable type, connector type and switch port in selecting the right patch cords for 40G QSFP+ transceivers are necessary and important. They are closely related to the transmission distance, network flexibility and reliability of the whole 40G network. But in practical cabling for 40G QSFP+ transceivers, these three factors are far from enough. Planning and designing takes a lot of time and may not achieve results good enough. However, fiber-mart can solve your problems with professional one-stop service including the cost-effective and reliable network designing and 40G products.

How Much Do You Know About PLC Splitter?

PLC Splitter, short for Planar Lightwave Circuit Splitter, is developed based on unique silica glass waveguide process with reliable precision aligned fiber pigtail in a miniature package, providing a low cost light distribution solution with small form factor and high reliability.

 

Why Do We Need PLC Splitters?

Splitter is an indispensable component of Passive Optical Network (PON) systems. In the PON system, PLC splitter is used to distribute or combine optical signals. As widely used in FTTx (Fiber to the x, which is defined as a collective term for various optical fiber delivery topologies that are categorized according to where the fiber terminates), the splitter technology is valued with its wider operating wavelength (PLC splitter can work on 1260-1650nm wavelength, while FBT can usually work on three different operating wavelengths). PLC splitter, with its high quality performance, such as the low insertion loss, low Polarization Dependent Loss (PDL), meeting the transmission requirements of different wavelength, spectral uniformity, the average signal assigned to the user, compact structure, small volume, low cost of more points etc., is widely used and expected as an important component in many network solutions. The position of PLC Splitter in the network see Figure 1.

The position of PLC Splitter in the network

 

How Does a PLC Splitter Work?

PLC Splitter is installed in every optical network between the PON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and the Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) that the OLT serves. The simple optical splitter is used in networks to implement BPON, GPON, EPON, 10G EPON, and 10G GPON technology. But there is something special in a WDM PON network, it will use an Arrayed Wave Guide (AWG) instead of the optical splitter. PLC splitter is based on planar Light wave circuit technology and precision aligning process so that it can divide a single/dual optical input(s) into multiple optical outputs uniformly and is denoted 1xN or 2xN. We can see the Figure 2. below, which shows the PLC splitter’s working principle.

PLC splitter's working principle

 

Types of PLC Splitters

Depending on subscriber conditions or cable length, types of PLC splitter available include 1xN and 2xN, such as 1×4, 1×8, 1×16, 1×32, etc. may be used. In addition, in order to follow clients’ different inquiry, different package are produced by the manufacturers.

 

fiber-mart recently launched the newest product of the PLC splitter producing line, which is designed in Mini plug-in Type(Figure 8.). This type of PLC splitter is specialized for plug and play splitter application, features high reliability, reduce installation time,small size, wide operating wavelength range and good channel-to-channel uniformity and provide a cost effective and space saving product suitable to the ever changing networking requirements, and now is widely used in PON networks to realize optical signal power splitting.

Should We Choose Punch Down or Feed-through Patch Panel?

Copper patch panels provide a useful solution for cable management in data centers and other high-density environments. In the market, two types are offered like punch down and feed-through categories. But consumers often find it’s difficult to make a decision on which one is better. This article is going to help your dilemma.

Punch Down Patch Panel

Punch down patch panels are available in Cat5e or Cat6. On the front plate, RJ45 ports (usually 24 ports) are used to directly connect Ethernet copper cable. All ports are numbered for easy identification. In the rear, it’s patch panel module with color markings for punching down Ethernet cable. Color coded labels are designed for T568A and T568B wiring configurations.

 

Punch Down Patch Panel Installation Steps

If you select punch down patch panel, firstly you need to terminate all cables into the patch panel.

 

First, strip the outside protective jacket about 3-6 inches from the cable with cable stripping tools.

 

Second, after removing the cable jacket, you should separate the wire pairs. Try to straighten the ends so that you can do the termination easily.

 

Third, place the cable wires into the slot on the patch panel. Choose a port on the patch panel to begin terminating. Usually we start with the 1st port. Then insert each wire into its own slot. Consider whether you will use T568A or T568B configuration. Don’t leave wires exposed to much or twisted to avoid weakening signal.

 

Fourth, terminate the wires. Lay all wires onto the slots and double check whether the wire matches the right configuration. Use a punch down tool with 110 blade to terminate each wire individually. The 110 blade should fully cover the wire on the patch panel. Push down the tool and cut the end of wire off.

 

Fifth, secure the cable to the patch panel with a zip tie if there are slots on the patch panel.

 

Sixth, inspect the wire. Once you’ve finished terminating the wires, use a cable tester to check if all the wires are correctly terminated.

When the punching down process is completed, you can install the patch panel into the racks with screws.

 

Feed-through Patch Panel

Feed-through patch panel provides patching without punching down the wires to the ports. There are generally Cat5e and Cat6 feed-through patch panel configured in 1U (24 ports) or in 2U size (48 ports). Each Feed-through patch panel has both RJ45 ports on the front and rear side. And ports on front side are numbered for easy identification and installation. With feed-through patch panel, the Ethernet patch cables can be inserted into the ports directly in an easy and fast way. The patch panel is quite suitable for high-density network system, which can protect cable and improve cable management efficiency.

 

Feed-through Patch Panel Installation Steps

 

Install the fee-through patch panels in lay racks or communication cabinets.

First, find an empty rack space.

Second, install the panel with supplied cuphead screws.

Third, insert the Ethernet patch cables into the front and rear ports.

Fourth, after patching all cables, use cable ties to secure the cables to lacing bar.

 

Which One Is Better?

To use punch down patch panel or feed-through patch panel, people are feel confused. Some recommends traditional one because they can find , while some prefer to feed-through. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. To decide which one to buy, you may consider the following factors:

 

Cost–Feed-through patch panel is more expensive than traditional patch panel. If your budget allows, you can purchase feed-through patch panel.

 

Time–From the above content, the installation steps of punching down patch panel is obviously more complicated. Especially when you have lots of Ethernet cables to be punched down, it really takes a great deal of time. Using feed-through patch panel can save you time without punching down procedures. However, it’s another case to small network.

 

Network Error Possibility–During terminating wires into the punch down patch panel slots, you may match the wrong configurations. That can lead to link fault. But you don’t need worry about this issue if you use feed-through patch panel.

 

Summary

Punch down patch panel requires high techniques and carefulness. For small network, you are suggested to buy traditional patch panel on condition that you’re skilled at punching down wires. For big project, feed-through patch panel is the first choice. Both patch panels are accessible in fiber-mart.com. Come and find your appropriate patch panel.