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Networking & Telecommunications vocabulary · Cabling and Fibre

Patch panel

Meaning in networking & telecommunications, with examples

nounCommon term

In networking & telecommunications, patch panel means: A panel, usually mounted in a rack, where the permanent cables from offices or other rooms end in rows of numbered ports, so that short cables can connect them to switches.

In Turkish: patch panel, dağıtım paneli, bağlantı paneli

How it is used

Used by cabling installers and network technicians in comms rooms. Cables are terminated on, labelled on and patched from the patch panel. A messy patch panel full of unlabelled cables makes troubleshooting much slower.

Example sentences

  1. Desk 3B is on port 24 of the patch panel in the second-floor cabinet.

  2. The installers will terminate all the new Cat6 runs on a 48-port patch panel.

Common collocations

  • patch panel port
  • label the patch panel
  • fibre patch panel
  • 48-port patch panel
  • terminate on a patch panel
  • patch cableA short cable with a connector at each end, used to connect devices to each other or to a patch panel, for example a switch port to a patch panel port.
  • EthernetThe standard technology (IEEE 802.3) for wired local networks, which defines how devices send frames over copper or fibre cables at speeds from 10 Mbps up to hundreds of gigabits per second.
  • switchA device with many ports that connects computers, phones, printers and other equipment inside the same local network and forwards each frame only to the port where its destination is.
  • fibre optic cableA cable that carries data as pulses of light through very thin strands of glass, allowing much higher speeds and much longer distances than copper.

More terms: Cabling and Fibre

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