Data Center Wiring Standards

Sat Sep 9 03:31:39 UTC 2006

Rick,

The organization and standards you are looking for are:

BICSI  -  http://www.bicsi.org/ and TIA/EIA 568 et al for structured 
cabling design for low voltage distribution.

The BICSI organization has training and certification for RCDD 
Registered Communications Distribution Designer

A BICSI article that is on there web site about data center design is 
http://www.bicsi.org/Content/Files/PDF/link2006/Kacperski.pdf.

TIA/EIA 568(ab) how ever many they are up to discuss structured cabling 
design for UTP/STP/fiber/coax including patch cables single and multi 
pair UTP/STP/fiber  patch panels,  HVAC control, fire system control and 
security systems.

John (ISDN) Lee

Rick Kunkel wrote:

>Heya folks,
>
>I hope this is on-topic.  I read the charter, and it falls somewhere along
>the fuzzy border I think...
>
>Can anyone tell me the standard way to deal with patch panels, racks, and
>switches in a data center used for colocation?  I've a sneaking suspicion
>that we're doing it in a fairly non-scalable way.  (I am not responsible
>for the current method, and I think I'm glad to say that.)  Strangely
>enough, I can find like NO resources on this.  I've spent the better part
>of two hours looking.
>
>Right now, we have a rack filled with nothing but patch panels.  We have
>some switches in another rack, and colocation customers scattered around
>other racks.  When a new customer comes in, we run a long wire from their
>computer(s) and/or other device(s) to the patch panel.  Then, from the
>appropriate block connectors on the back of the panel, we run another wire
>that terminates in a RJ-45 to plug into the switch.
>
>Sounds bonkers I think, doesn't it?
>
>My thoughts go like this:  We put a patch panel in each rack.  Each of
>these patch panels is permanently (more or less) wired to a patch panel in
>our main patch cabinet.  So, essentially what you've got is a main patch
>cabinet with a patch panel that corresponds to a patch panel in each other
>cabinet.  Making connection is cinchy and only requires 3-6 foot
>off-the-shelf cables.
>
>Does that sound more correct?
>
>I talked to someone else in the office here, and they believe that they've
>seen it done with a switch in each cabinet, although they couldn't
>remember is there was a patch panel as well.  If you're running 802.1q
>trunks between a bunch of switches (no patch-panels needed), I can see
>that working too, I suppose.
>
>Any standards?  Best practices?  Suggestions?  Resources, in the form of
>books, web pages, RFCs, or white papers?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Rick Kunkel
>
>
>
>  
>
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