EMZETT.Network Cabinet
In short: A lockable cabinet (usually a 19-inch rack) housing switches, patch panels, often also routers, servers and the power supply in one central place.
In more detail: It is the hub of the building cabling: all network cables from the rooms come together here and end on patch panels, from where they are connected to the active devices. The cabling plan states in which cabinet a connection is terminated.
In Depth
Construction
A network cabinet has a frame with rack units (U) into which 19-inch devices are screwed (1 U = 4.45 cm). Wall and floor-standing cabinets of e.g. 6 to 42 U are common. Typical contents are patch panels, switches, cable management, a power strip (often with a UPS) and fans.
Important planning points
- Cooling and ventilation: Active equipment produces heat; without air circulation the temperature rises and devices fail.
- Access and security: The cabinet is lockable so that only authorised people can re-plug connections.
- Tidiness: Cable management and labelling of patch cables prevent cable chaos (“spaghetti”), which makes fault finding much harder.
- Power supply: Enough protected sockets, a UPS for important equipment.
- Reserve: Plan space for expansion (free rack units and ports).
Distribution levels
Large buildings have several levels: a campus distributor (central, connection to the internet), building distributors and floor distributors, linked by backbone cables (often fibre). Each distributor is a network cabinet with its own ID in the plan.
See also: Cabling plan, Patch panel, Switch, Router