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JXC

Networking Patch Panel vs Switch

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So what is the purpose of a Patch Panel? To my understanding, you wire a device into the back of the panel, then connect it to a switch via the front ports. Why not just connect the device straight to the switch? Also, does a switch does the same thing as a home router, just on a large enterprise scale with more CAT ports?

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You use a patch panel so things look pretty. It's basically used to terminate networking cable. So an example is an office. The office has a bunch of network jacks and it's all wired up to a networking closet or server room. Some of those are not going to be used. In fact some places one of them isn't meant to be used at all but ran as a spare in case one of the cables is bad.

 

So you aren't going to crimp the ends of all those cables with RJ45 and just have them dangling there. You wouldn't even know what went where. Instead you terminate them to a patch panel that you can mark where each goes. Everything is neat and tidy and you know where things go. In a server room or datacenter they are mainly used to connect racks and for the same reason as an office. You can pre-run all your cables to the racks designated for your telecom and networking needs. 

 

Some places might just put a switch at the top of each rack and run fiber to their routers. Then you only need one or two runs for each rack and you aren't overflowing the networking channel or top of the racks with cables.

 

Many people just use the words switch and router interchangeably. There are technical differences and I'm not an expert so maybe ask the expert @driz

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