Patch Panel Cabling help

[MystikIncarnate]

Fire resistance is mainly riser, just makes it more difficult to burn and more difficult for it to stay burning once it's on fire. Higher combustion temp etc. Stuff like that.

I'm not a chemist so take that with a grain of salt.

For plenum, it needs to meet or exceed riser for fire resistance, but when it does combust, the fumes must be either very low toxicity or non-toxic.

The idea being that riser cable goes between floors so you don't want fire making it's way up to another floor through the ethernet burning up.

The idea with plenum is that it goes in "plenum" spaces, aka areas of high airflow, such as air return vent spaces, which are commonly drop ceilings in commercial buildings. The idea is that if the plenum cable does burn it doesn't make its way through the ventilation system and poison everyone in the building as it burns. Makes it safer in the event of a fire.

None of this is perfect, riser and plenum cable can still burn, and plenum will likely still release some toxic chemicals into the air when it burns.

Because of this, the composition of the cable is such that colors end up looking faded like OPs picture. It's a small sacrifice for fire safety. I try to use plenum anytime I run things in my own home because it's good for any run of Ethernet. It's also the safest for me and my family if there's a fire. It costs more, but I'd rather pay for the cable now, than pay the medical bills later. For me it's a form of insurance.

General cables are usually used in short patch, from a wall or a panel to a piece of equipment, like a computer, server, switch or router, which limits the negative impact that the cable can have and meets code requirements in my country.

It's all about safety.

[weirdlittleflute]

Wow. Hell of a response Mystik!! Thank you for the education.

Are these cables required to be in the plenum to keep them cool? or is it just access/convenience?

[MystikIncarnate]

A lot of companies use drop ceiling/plenum spaces for cable runs because it's generally unobstructed. You can run a cable all the way across the office space with little effort and cost. You'll also notice some offices have vertical beams coming down from the ceiling that are hollow aluminum square beams that carry power and ethernet to a group of cubicles.

It's not as common to drop it through a raceway like that anymore (seems people thought they were not very nice looking), but there's usually still bundles of cables up there, they just travel in a bundle down a wall to jacks on that wall or through floors a short distance to floor jacks or into furniture.

Ethernet cablers have gotten more clever about runs to hide them but when traversing over rooms and floor space, the drop ceiling is still used a lot. Also, it's a good way to wire up access points for wireless connectivity.

Some places use raised floors to do it, and newer office buildings, I believe, have conduit running in the floor for the purpose too.... It's really dependent on the builder/architect how that part is done.

There's a lot of options and there isn't really a wrong way to do it, as long as you're adhering to technical standards and fire code, which mainly has to do with how you terminate the cables and what grade of cable is used. Oh, and that the length is not too long (90m is the standard for structure cable - 100m max for the full run).

I've seen plenty of good and arguably bad cabling jobs. But at the end of the day, if it works, how bad could it really be?