Monday, July 8, 2019

Can you use patch panels as joints in the physical network and is it good practise or not?

Having done simple network cable installs in the past, I find myself in a situation where my experience level is a little lacking. I'm upgrading the offices of a small air charter company (I'm one of the owner pilots) and the building is an old world war 2 RAF station so it's full of twists and turns and was never built with modern cabling requirements in mind. We are also limited in where we can make holes in walls, etc.

I am working with CAT 6A U/FTP solid and CAT6A S/FTP patch cable. Now as many of you will know, CAT 6A U/FTP is probably one of the most unbendable wires I've ever come across and I can see that trying to twist it through some of the bends and turns it is going to have to make is going to be a nightmare. I don't have the option to use more flexible cable like CAT5E due to tenancy restrictions.

Now in the past, I've only ever run structured network cabling in one continuous run from the port on the patch panel in the data cabinet where the switch resides to the keystone connector or RJ45 adaptor in the wall socket with no breaks in between. I really do not think this is going to be possible in this situation, some of the bends are going to be 90 degrees or more. To that end, can I run the cables between patch panels so they act as something akin to a 90 degree bend mechanism? If so, how detrimental is this likely to be to network speed (The longest run is 50 meters at most but most much less than that). Is there a better or more suitable component than a patch panel for negotiating these types of issues? I've googled but either my google fu is weak or I've not found it.

Many thanks for any assistance anyone can render.



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