Tag Archives: fiber patch panel

Proper Horizontal Cable Management for Rack

Cable management is a critical part of network cabling systems that require a large number of moves, adds and changes. The improper cable management may result in cable damage or cause transmission errors and performance issues as well as system downtime. In a horizontal manager system, the cable management for rack is important in telecommunications rooms for leased office space, brokerages and trading houses where the workstations will move or add additional ports frequently. This post will analyze why the horizontal rack cable management is important and offers FS horizontal cable management solutions for rack.

Why Is Proper Horizontal Rack Cable Management Important?

  • Poorly routed cables can lead to an assortment of problems over time. Jumbled cables would increase the risk of cables to be tangled up, and a possibility of interruption when reconnecting the cables.
  • The rack cable management is directly related to hardware safety. All equipment running on the server rack is going to generate heat, so organizing a rack with a conception involving space will help promote the airflow and hardware management.
  • Cable labels in a proper horizontal rack cable management can save a lot of time on troubleshooting. Just imagine how difficult it would be to trace a cable through that mess.
  • If rack cables were unorganized, a technician would spend hours tracing wires when something goes wrong. In most circumstances, we can’t afford to stay offline while a technician unravels a tangled nest of cables. Thus a proper horizontal cable management makes it easy for the technician to identify and access where goes wrong and fix it in far less time.

Horizontal Cable Management for Rack: Where to Start with?

Horizontal cable management system is often installed within racks or cabinets to manage cables on front racks and draw cables away from equipment neatly. The rack space of a horizontal cable management infrastructure is typically 1U or 2U high. The following part gives the FS plastic & metal horizontal fiber patch panel, cable managers, lacer panels to promote a proper cable management in your horizontal network cabling systems.

Horizontal Rackmount Fiber Patch Panel

Horizontal rackmount fiber patch panels help to organize cables and eliminate cable stress for your rack enclosure cabinet. FS offers 1U 19’’ blank rackmount fiber patch panels with plastic D-rings on the cable management panel and lacing bar. These rackmount fiber patch panels can be used to organize cables for fiber optic adapters, fiber enclosures, Ethernet switches, WDM chassis, etc.

ID 59576 72910
FS P/N FHD-1U-CMP300 FHD-FPP5DRL
Fiber Counts Max.96 Fibers Max.96 Fibers
Material Metal (SPCC) Metal+Plastic
No. of D-rings 5 (Metal) 5 (Plastic)
Detachability Yes (with Screws and Tools) Yes (Without Tool)
Horizontal Cable Managers with Finger Duct & Brush Strip

Horizontal cable managers with finger duct and brush strip allow neat and proper routing of the patch cables from equipment in racks and protect cables from damage. Fixed inset fingers on the front and back allow easier access to the ports for moves, adds, and changes. And the brush strip horizontal cable manager is constructed of high-quality steel with high-density nylon bristles, which can promote proper airflow through the rack and meet the demand for front-to-back cable runs.

ID 29038 29040 29039 68690 29033
FS P/N CMH-SFD1U CMH-DFD1U CMH-SFD2U CMH-4DRB1U 1U-BR-CMP
Material Plastic Plastic Plastic Metal (SPCC) Metal (SPCC)
Style Finger Duct Finger Duct Finger Duct Brush Strip & D-rings Brush Strip
Cable Capacity 44(Cat6) 44(Cat6) 100(Cat6) 100(Cat6) –
Horizontal Lacer Panel with D-rings

Horizontal lacer panels are efficient tools for rack or enclosure cabling. These D-rings on the lacer panel are essential to avoid cable strain and prevent damage to the ports on your rack-mount equipment. The five rotating D-rings can be easily assembled or disassembled manually according to your needs.

ID 64457 72911
FS P/N FHD-1U-CMP100 FHD-CMP5DR
Style D Rings Plastic D Rings
Number of Rings 5 5
Material Metal (SPCC) Metal+Plastic
Detachability Yes Yes

Conclusion

This post provides users with a horizontal cable management solution that simplifies cable routing in a finished professional appearance. With proper and efficient horizontal cable management tools, cable spaghetti is not a problem anymore. You can just have a peace of mind and reap the great benefits of sound cable management. FS horizontal cable management tools provide an efficient way to manage high performance copper, fiber optic, or coaxial cables on any 1U or 2U rack. For more details, please kindly visit www.fs.com.

Related Article: FS.COM 1U Cable Management Solutions Guide

Related Article: Selecting the Right Horizontal Cable Manager

Fiber Patch Panel for Ultra High Density Cabling

How to build a flexible and manageable cabling system in high density cabling environment is becoming an issue which has attracted increasing attention of many data centers. Cable management components like fiber patch panel have kept upgrading to meet the increasing needs for high density cabling. Proper using of patch panel does not only provide well management for fiber patch cables in data center, but also protects the fiber patch cables and reduces the risks of faults caused by problems like bend loss, dusts and wrong connections. For ultra high density cabling like 40G and 100G connections, things would be more complex. Luckily, with clever design of fiber patch panels, customers won’t worry about fiber cable mess and faults caused by bad cable management.

ultra high density cabling

Larger Fiber Count Means More Space Requirements

For 40G network, the backbone core signals are generally distributed into 4 strands of 10G signals in first. This process usually employs fanout MTP to LC fiber patch cables. For example, a 12-fiber MTP to 4 LC duplex fiber harness cable uses 8 fibers for 4 ways of duplex transmission. It means a fanout cable with a MTP connector and its 8 legs terminated with LC connector added in data center for a single duplex way of 40G transmission. In data center, a lot of 40G network should be built, which means the fiber cable count will be largely increased. Not to mention the 100G applications, which will increase at least 10 fibers for every 100G signal distribution.

Using Modular Design to Reduce the Space Requirements

To solve this problem, a series of fiber patch panels have been invented for 40G and 100G signal distribution applications. Here introduce two versions of ultra high density fiber patch panels which are designed for 40G and 100G applications separately: 1U 96-fiber MTP to LC breakout fiber patch panel and 2U 160-fiber MTP to LC breakout fiber patch panel. Both of them use the industry standard rack unit design, which can be installed on any standard rack.

96-fiber MTP to LC breakout fiber patch panel
1U 96-Fibers MTP-LC Fiber Patch Panel for 40G Applications

The above picture shows the details of this 96-fiber breakout patch panel. On the back panel of this unit, there are 12 8-fiber MTP adapters which are separately linked 12 groups of LC duplex adapters on the front panel. Each of the 12 groups has 4 duplex LC adapters which can support 4 ways of 10G duplex transmission. Thus, the whole fiber patch panel can support up to 12*40G transmission in duplex ways. To decrease the error connections, each port has been clearly identified by numbers and groups.

160-fiber MTP to LC breakout fiber patch panel
160-Fiber MTP-LC Fiber Patch Panel for 100G Applications

A 160 fibers MTP to LC fiber patch panel uses a standard 2U rack design, which uses the same theory of the above mentions 96-fiber 40G fiber patch panel. The distribution of the 100G signals is generally achieved in 10*10G. There are 8 24-fiber MTP adapters on the back panel of this 100G fiber patch panel. Each of them connects a 24-fiber MTP adapter on the back panel to a group of 10 duplex LC adapters on the front panel. Thus, 8*100G duplex transmissions can be achieved with this 2U rack.

Conclusion

The above mentioned 1U 96-fibers MTP-LC patch panel for 40G and 160-fiber MTP-LC fiber patch panel for 100G applications do not only decrease the space requirement for ultra high density cabling environment, but also decrease the faults caused by cable clutter, connection, disconnecting or bend loss by protecting the optical fiber in side a strong and reliable box. Kindly visit FS.COM or contact sales@fs.com for more details about ultra high density patch panels, if you are interested.

Related articles: Best Patch Panel Cable Management Techniques

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