Technology Reviews

When surmounting trouble rises, an optic fiber technician must choose the most suitable patch panel for a particular situation. That technician must recognize that when it comes to easy installation, proper termination and long term maintenance, not all patch panels are created equally. Optic fiber is robust and therefore deserves some special treatment. For example: if a horizontal copper cable is damaged, one user will be affected. If a backbone fiber goes down, it can take a lot of users down with it. This is why using fully enclosed connecting hardware for optic fiber is crucial. This is where the technician must choose between using wall-mounted or rack-mounted hardware. The optic fiber density required will most likely influence the technicians choice between the wall-mounted and rack-mounted connectivity. Many technicians will choose to use fiber patch cables. Trust your technician to know what’s best.

Wall-mounted enclosures are suitable for up to 24 optic fibers, although with small form factors and high density connectors, can extend the fiber optic cable count to as many as 144. Wall-mount enclosures also offer the benefit of reduced floor space requirements. Rack-mounted optic fiber enclosures can be used with higher fabric counts or depending on the proximity to communications equipment, where rack-mounted optic fiber enclosures are preferable. 1U enclosures can handle up to 24 optic fiber cables with ST or SC connectors, or up to 48 optic fibers by using small form factor connectors. For extra protection, 2U to 4U enclosures can be used to handle up to 144 optic fiber connections.

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