Cable Management vs. Easy Maintenance
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Posted by on July 26, 2006, 11:57 am
Please log in for more thread options I work for a school district that is in the process of bringing on 3 new schools, one of which is a high school with several hundred drops per closet. We use IP telephony and all phones in the district are powered via Power over Ethernet. The issue that we are facing is that due to the cost of PoE switches, we can only afford to put in PoE ports for the number of phones that we have, the rest of the drops connect to non-powered switches. I would like for these closets to have all patch cables neatly arranged and bundled from the panel to the switches running through vertical and horizontal cable managers. The issue we then run into is that once we get a closet all looking good, phones begin to move and cables that were previously plugged into non-powered switches need to be moved to a PoE switch, which requires tracing down a cable through all these bundles of cable management just to move it to the PoE switch. My initial thought was to just label all of the patch cables as to which drop they connect to on the panel, but with several hundred cables it takes just as long if not longer to find the cable labeled P4 D17 as it does to just trace it down. My other thoughts would be color coding the labels so that a color represents either a certain patch panel or a group of 24 or 48 ports. That way if you knew the cable was on panel 2 (green), then you'd only be looking for green labels to find the right cable. After thinking about this, I know that several of you already know what works and what doesn't work because you work with this stuff on a daily basis and have seen installations 10x the size of ours. So if any of you have any suggestions as to what works and what doesn't, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for your help, Matt | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Perkowski on July 26, 2006, 7:37 pm
Please log in for more thread options Ok, let me ask you this? Why not just leave the old drop in its original location and add a new one for the phone's new location? How many MACs do you have a month? 95% of the K-12 I worked in would have us (cabling contractor) run a new drop to the new location, while leaving the old drop intact. Thing is if you want to use the same drop to move to a different rack where your PoE switches are, you could run into a lot problems. For example not enough service loop to reach new rack, disrupting 110 terminations on old rack when pulling out cable, etc. Personally, it makes more sense to add a new drop in my opinion. Perkowski | |||||||||||||
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Posted by RC on July 26, 2006, 11:24 pm
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I don't think he's talking about moving drops, but changing the patch cables so that a jack that was on a non-PoE switch would be moved to a PoE switch when the phone is moved. No real easy answer beyond using all PoE, which as you said is often cost prohibitive. When I mix PoE and non-PoE I color code the patch cables. My personal "standard" Yellow=straight-through Ethernet Red=cross-over Ethernet Blue=PoE Green=ISDN-BRI Grey=T1 or PRI > Ok, let me ask you this? Why not just leave the old drop in its original
> location and add a new one for the phone's new location? > > How many MACs do you have a month? 95% of the K-12 I worked in would have > us (cabling contractor) run a new drop to the new location, while leaving > the old drop intact. > > Thing is if you want to use the same drop to move to a different rack > where > your PoE switches are, you could run into a lot problems. For example not > enough service loop to reach new rack, disrupting 110 terminations on old > rack when pulling out cable, etc. > > Personally, it makes more sense to add a new drop in my opinion. > > Perkowski > >> I work for a school district that is in the process of bringing on 3
>> new schools, one of which is a high school with several hundred drops >> per closet. We use IP telephony and all phones in the district are >> powered via Power over Ethernet. The issue that we are facing is that >> due to the cost of PoE switches, we can only afford to put in PoE ports >> for the number of phones that we have, the rest of the drops connect to >> non-powered switches. I would like for these closets to have all patch >> cables neatly arranged and bundled from the panel to the switches >> running through vertical and horizontal cable managers. The issue we >> then run into is that once we get a closet all looking good, phones >> begin to move and cables that were previously plugged into non-powered >> switches need to be moved to a PoE switch, which requires tracing down >> a cable through all these bundles of cable management just to move it >> to the PoE switch. >> >> My initial thought was to just label all of the patch cables as to >> which drop they connect to on the panel, but with several hundred >> cables it takes just as long if not longer to find the cable labeled P4 >> D17 as it does to just trace it down. My other thoughts would be color >> coding the labels so that a color represents either a certain patch >> panel or a group of 24 or 48 ports. That way if you knew the cable was >> on panel 2 (green), then you'd only be looking for green labels to find >> the right cable. >> >> After thinking about this, I know that several of you already know what >> works and what doesn't work because you work with this stuff on a daily >> basis and have seen installations 10x the size of ours. So if any of >> you have any suggestions as to what works and what doesn't, I'd love to >> hear it. >> >> Thanks for your help, >> Matt >> >
> -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com | |||||||||||||
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Posted by RC on July 27, 2006, 3:39 pm
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I don't think he's talking about moving drops, but changing the patch cables so that a jack that was on a non-PoE switch would be moved to a PoE switch when the phone is moved. No real easy answer beyond using all PoE, which as you said is often cost prohibitive. When I mix PoE and non-PoE I color code the patch cables. My personal "standard" Yellow=straight-through Ethernet Red=cross-over Ethernet Blue=PoE Green=ISDN-BRI Grey=T1 or PRI > Ok, let me ask you this? Why not just leave the old drop in its original
> location and add a new one for the phone's new location? > > How many MACs do you have a month? 95% of the K-12 I worked in would have > us (cabling contractor) run a new drop to the new location, while leaving > the old drop intact. > > Thing is if you want to use the same drop to move to a different rack > where > your PoE switches are, you could run into a lot problems. For example not > enough service loop to reach new rack, disrupting 110 terminations on old > rack when pulling out cable, etc. > > Personally, it makes more sense to add a new drop in my opinion. > > Perkowski > >> I work for a school district that is in the process of bringing on 3
>> new schools, one of which is a high school with several hundred drops >> per closet. We use IP telephony and all phones in the district are >> powered via Power over Ethernet. The issue that we are facing is that >> due to the cost of PoE switches, we can only afford to put in PoE ports >> for the number of phones that we have, the rest of the drops connect to >> non-powered switches. I would like for these closets to have all patch >> cables neatly arranged and bundled from the panel to the switches >> running through vertical and horizontal cable managers. The issue we >> then run into is that once we get a closet all looking good, phones >> begin to move and cables that were previously plugged into non-powered >> switches need to be moved to a PoE switch, which requires tracing down >> a cable through all these bundles of cable management just to move it >> to the PoE switch. >> >> My initial thought was to just label all of the patch cables as to >> which drop they connect to on the panel, but with several hundred >> cables it takes just as long if not longer to find the cable labeled P4 >> D17 as it does to just trace it down. My other thoughts would be color >> coding the labels so that a color represents either a certain patch >> panel or a group of 24 or 48 ports. That way if you knew the cable was >> on panel 2 (green), then you'd only be looking for green labels to find >> the right cable. >> >> After thinking about this, I know that several of you already know what >> works and what doesn't work because you work with this stuff on a daily >> basis and have seen installations 10x the size of ours. So if any of >> you have any suggestions as to what works and what doesn't, I'd love to >> hear it. >> >> Thanks for your help, >> Matt >> >
> -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com | |||||||||||||
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Posted by on July 27, 2006, 10:40 pm
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RC wrote: > I don't think he's talking about moving drops, but changing the patch cables
> so that a jack that was on a non-PoE switch would be moved to a PoE switch > when the phone is moved. > Thanks for the replies, but RC is correct. I can explain it a little bit better... typically we have about 3-7 drops per classroom. Each classroom also has 1 phone. So per classroom we need one PoE switch port and between 2 and 6 regular switch ports. When a teacher decides that they to rearrange their room and want their phone on the other side of the classroom and thier network printer where their phone was, we have to go into the closet, track down the port that the phone will be moving to and make sure it is connected to a powered switch, as well as removing the printer's port from a powered switch to a regular switch. It gets really hectic when we are opening a new school and all the teachers desk are set by the moving company, and all the phones and computers are placed by someone else. Then the first day of school, all the teachers come along and rearrange and we have to completely redo the entire wiring of the closet to make sure all the phones will work. > No real easy answer beyond using all PoE, which as you said is often cost
> prohibitive. > > When I mix PoE and non-PoE I color code the patch cables. My personal > "standard" > Yellow=straight-through Ethernet > Red=cross-over Ethernet > Blue=PoE > Green=ISDN-BRI > Grey=T1 or PRI I've considered using a color code, but that still really doesn't help on tracking down the regular cables that have to be switched with the powered ones... Especially if you have a nice cable management with all your cables neatly velcroed or cable tied. :-) Someone did email me saying I could look into powered patch panels, which I had never heard of before, but I'm afraid that solution would probably be almost as pricey as using all powered switches. And their may not be a good solution for this other that all PoE switches. I'm kind of a stickler for good cable management, and everytime we start getting moves like this the closets start looking like spider webs. Thanks for the input, Matt >
> > Ok, let me ask you this? Why not just leave the old drop in its original
> > location and add a new one for the phone's new location? > > > > How many MACs do you have a month? 95% of the K-12 I worked in would have > > us (cabling contractor) run a new drop to the new location, while leaving > > the old drop intact. > > > > Thing is if you want to use the same drop to move to a different rack > > where > > your PoE switches are, you could run into a lot problems. For example not > > enough service loop to reach new rack, disrupting 110 terminations on old > > rack when pulling out cable, etc. > > > > Personally, it makes more sense to add a new drop in my opinion. > > > > Perkowski > > > >> I work for a school district that is in the process of bringing on 3
> >> new schools, one of which is a high school with several hundred drops > >> per closet. We use IP telephony and all phones in the district are > >> powered via Power over Ethernet. The issue that we are facing is that > >> due to the cost of PoE switches, we can only afford to put in PoE ports > >> for the number of phones that we have, the rest of the drops connect to > >> non-powered switches. I would like for these closets to have all patch > >> cables neatly arranged and bundled from the panel to the switches > >> running through vertical and horizontal cable managers. The issue we > >> then run into is that once we get a closet all looking good, phones > >> begin to move and cables that were previously plugged into non-powered > >> switches need to be moved to a PoE switch, which requires tracing down > >> a cable through all these bundles of cable management just to move it > >> to the PoE switch. > >> > >> My initial thought was to just label all of the patch cables as to > >> which drop they connect to on the panel, but with several hundred > >> cables it takes just as long if not longer to find the cable labeled P4 > >> D17 as it does to just trace it down. My other thoughts would be color > >> coding the labels so that a color represents either a certain patch > >> panel or a group of 24 or 48 ports. That way if you knew the cable was > >> on panel 2 (green), then you'd only be looking for green labels to find > >> the right cable. > >> > >> After thinking about this, I know that several of you already know what > >> works and what doesn't work because you work with this stuff on a daily > >> basis and have seen installations 10x the size of ours. So if any of > >> you have any suggestions as to what works and what doesn't, I'd love to > >> hear it. > >> > >> Thanks for your help, > >> Matt > >> > >
> > >
> > > -- > Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com | |||||||||||||
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> new schools, one of which is a high school with several hundred drops
> per closet. We use IP telephony and all phones in the district are
> powered via Power over Ethernet. The issue that we are facing is that
> due to the cost of PoE switches, we can only afford to put in PoE ports
> for the number of phones that we have, the rest of the drops connect to
> non-powered switches. I would like for these closets to have all patch
> cables neatly arranged and bundled from the panel to the switches
> running through vertical and horizontal cable managers. The issue we
> then run into is that once we get a closet all looking good, phones
> begin to move and cables that were previously plugged into non-powered
> switches need to be moved to a PoE switch, which requires tracing down
> a cable through all these bundles of cable management just to move it
> to the PoE switch.
>
> My initial thought was to just label all of the patch cables as to
> which drop they connect to on the panel, but with several hundred
> cables it takes just as long if not longer to find the cable labeled P4
> D17 as it does to just trace it down. My other thoughts would be color
> coding the labels so that a color represents either a certain patch
> panel or a group of 24 or 48 ports. That way if you knew the cable was
> on panel 2 (green), then you'd only be looking for green labels to find
> the right cable.
>
> After thinking about this, I know that several of you already know what
> works and what doesn't work because you work with this stuff on a daily
> basis and have seen installations 10x the size of ours. So if any of
> you have any suggestions as to what works and what doesn't, I'd love to
> hear it.
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Matt
>