How to Select the Right Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure?

Author: Geoff

Jun. 24, 2024

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How to Select the Right Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure?

Rack-mount fiber enclosures can provide great help to engineers in structuring and securing rack-mount cabling systems in data centers. Do you know which types of rack-mount fiber enclosures are available now? According to different application scenarios, you should choose different types of fiber optic enclosures to install a cabling system for your data center. This article will give you a detailed introduction to the different types of rack-mount fiber enclosures.

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Comprehensive Guide for Different Types of Rack Mount Fiber Enclosures

Rack mount fiber enclosures are the most popular of the many types of fiber optic enclosures today. They are used in a large number of data centers because they provide easy management and more robust termination of the fiber optic cables. Pairing a rack mount fiber enclosure with fiber adapter panels and fiber cassettes allows for a flexible fiber optic connection system. If you don't know how to choose the most suitable mount fiber optic enclosure for your fiber optic system, the following section will answer your questions.

Rack Unit of Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure

Generally speaking, rack mount fiber enclosures are 19 inches in size and are available in 2U and 4U rack unit sizes in addition to the 1U size for individual enclosures. 1U and 2U rack mount enclosures have full front and back access and have a drawer that can slide back and forth. The 1U rack-mount fiber enclosure supports a maximum of 144 fibers (LC), and the 2U rack-mount fiber enclosure promotes access to a maximum of 288 fibers (LC). The 4U rack mount enclosure is designed as a fixed bulkhead with a maximum access number of 432 fibers (LC). The following pictures show the difference between the three enclosures, depending on the space requirements and the number of fiber access requirements.

Cover Removable, Slide-out, and Swing-out Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure

The rack mount fiber enclosure can also be divided into three versions depending on how it is opened: cover removable, slide-out, and swing-out. Using the slide-out and swing-out models with a convenient slide-out support tray or an integrated swing-out tray can provide greater convenience for your usual internal access. When using the cover-removable rack mount fiber enclosure, you need to open the whole fiber rack mount. Therefore, although the slide-out and swing-type types are more expensive, we recommend using them for more convenience.

Fixed or Removable Front Panels Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure

In the rack mount fiber enclosure, the fiber optic adapter is a very critical component that can be used to connect different fiber optic connectors. Rack mount fiber enclosure can also be divided into two types depending on whether the front panels are removable. fixed or removable rack mount fiber enclosure. The fixed rack mount fiber enclosure front panel can be loaded with a fixed fiber optic adapter, while the other one can hold several fiber adapter panels or fiber cassettes. The removable front panel is preferred in the market because of its larger capacity, a plug-and-play fiber adapter panel solution that allows network deployment and mobility, adding and changing MACs more easily and flexibly.

Splicing or Pre-terminated Fiber Termination for Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure

There are two common types of rack mount fiber enclosures, fiber splicing or pre-terminated fiber termination for rack mount fiber enclosure, which the different fiber termination ways can classify. When you use pigtail splicing to do fiber termination, a fiber splice tray is required inside the rack mount fiber enclosure to manage and store the fiber. When using pre-terminated assemblies, the inside of the rack mount fiber enclosure is designed to include spools to organize the fiber cables. Comparing these two, the rack mount fiber enclosure with pre-terminated fiber assemblies can save you more time and installation costs.

Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure with FAP or MTP® Fiber Cassettes

The rack-mount fiber enclosure with fiber adapter panel can be used in two types of cabling environments including pre-terminated and field-terminated. When used in different environments, additional spools or splice trays may be required for installation. Another version of the enclosure is loaded with MTP® fiber cassettes, which provide secure transitions between MTP and LC or SC connectors. The MTP® pre-terminated breakout rack mount patch panel typically supports 1U rack and up to 144 fibers, Using this rack mount fiber enclosure can be a great way to help your network with 40/100G Ethernet network migration.

How to Choose A Right Rack Mount Fiber Enclosure

Here are some tips for selecting the right rack mount fiber enclosure for you to follow.

Physical Demand

Before choosing a case, you need to understand your needs, including all the complete and accurate data including height, depth, width, and weight. When you know all of this data, you will know what kind of rack-mount fiber enclosure you need for your data center. Choosing a larger capacity rack mount fiber enclosure may be more appropriate as you face the pressure of subsequent upgrades and growth.

Accessibility Requirements

A good rack-mount fiber enclosure should be able to access a large amount of fiber through the back and top of the enclosure to make the most of it. It is difficult to do the job of adding cables when you are not moving and interfering with active fiber, using slide-out and swing-type rack fiber enclosures can make these things easier, and with that comes higher costs. When you use removable type enclosures, you may have a harder time accessing cables or maintaining them, but it also requires less cost.

In addition to the basic access cables and maintenance, you may need to add additional equipment to the enclosure, such as hubs, routers, or patch panels, which also require accessories for placement, so you need to know exactly what you need and what you are going to use it for when you purchase it.

Budget

You can choose a competitively priced rack mount fiber enclosure depending on your budget. Still, in addition to considering your budget first, you should also consider whether you need a quality unit that will meet all of your needs now and in the future. After choosing a high-quality custom enclosure, you may not need to replace or update it for a long time, and it will provide you with durable, stable support.

Conclusion

More data centers are now considering using rack-mount fiber enclosures to bring better management and maintenance to cables. In addition, applications such as fiber optic splice connectors, patch cord connections, and MTP to LC interface transfers can also use the rack mount fiber enclosure. According to these points in the article, you can purchase a suitable rack-mount fiber enclosure. If you want to know more about rack-mount fiber enclosures, you can contact us via FS.com.

Size Matters – Especially When Choosing A Network Rack ...

Thanks for returning for Part Seven of Tech Service Today's technical buyer's guide series called Size Matters - Especially When Choosing A Network Rack. This series explains why IT professionals must evaluate every dimension of a cabinet or rack before purchasing one. When a rack or cabinet is chosen based on only one or two dimensions, the result is a cabinet that does not properly accommodate your equipment. To avoid the costly mistake of purchasing the wrong rack, just follow the advice offered in this series.

In our first six segments, we explained the importance of each of these rack measurements and provided tips for calculating your size requirements for each:

Internal Height

External Height

Internal Width

External Width

Internal Depth and Maximum Rail Depth

If you want to learn more, please visit our website custom rack mount enclosures.

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External Depth

In today's segment, we discuss the various types of doors available for most rack-mount enclosures so IT professionals recognize which type will best meet their needs. While types of rack doors are not exactly a measurement (as all previous segments of this series have been), it is an important option requiring serious consideration when choosing a new cabinet.

Part 7 - Door Types for Rackmount Enclosures

There are three basic types of doors that most rack-mount enclosure manufacturers offer: Steel (solid and vented), Glass (tempered or Plexi), and Mesh. While still the perfect solution to house lots of patch panels and other passive equipment used in large networks, cabinets with Steel Doors are far less common than those with Glass or Mesh doors because they do not provide adequate ventilation (making them a poor choice for storing sensitive electronics), and they prevent the visual monitoring of the equipment inside (unless a door is opened).

Cabinets with glass front doors are the most visually appealing option because they offer clear visibility into all the equipment mounted inside. When placed in high-profile areas where there is lots of foot traffic, cabinets with glass doors enable companies to showcase their technology in the most aesthetically pleasing way. But there is a down-side to enclosures with glass front doors.

Whether glass or steel, any solid front door on a cabinet severely restricts air flow. Ignoring this can be a costly mistake when the cabinet will contain servers and other sensitive network electronics. While there do exist fans and blowers that, when laid out strategically, can provide the air-flow and cooling needed to prevent equipment from overheating, they rely on empty spaces being left above many of those devices. So when planning a high-density solution wherein electronics and servers will occupy every U of space on your rails, the best choice is a cabinet with a Mesh front door.

While my definition of a steel Mesh door is clear and specific, be forewarned that some rack and cabinet manufacturers use the term mesh loosely to mean any door through which a lot of air can flow. This includes doors that I would describe as perforated steel doors, which are merely a steel door through which hundred of holes have been punched. So make sure you know exactly what you are getting when ordering a cabinet. This means doing more than looking at a picture of a cabinet because those photos often represent the base model of a customizable product line. So if you custom configure an enclosure, make sure you review all the specifications to confirm that what you see is a true representation of what you get.

While we addressed limited space concerns in the previous segments of this series addressing external dimensions of cabinets, it is important to consider any space limitations when choosing doors for your cabinet. When a cabinet will be in a large, open environment, then there is ample room to swing the front and rear doors open with obstructions. But full-size front doors can present problems in small spaces.

If your cabinet will be placed in a telecom closet with limited space or in a small data center where it will be situated relatively close to a wall, then look for a cabinet with split-rear doors. Because split rear doors are only half the width of a full-size door, you need far less space to open them. For extremely tight environments, you may want to consider a cabinet with a split front door too.

In addition to single, full-size doors, and split, half-width doors, a third flavor of doors exists in which several short, full-width doors appear on one face of a cabinet. This gives the illusion that several small rack-mount enclosures have been stacked on top of one another.

These multi-door enclosures - or co-location cabinets, as they are branded by several rack manufacturers - typically have two, three, sometimes even four separate doors on both the front and back. Each door provides access to a single compartment within the cabinet. Since each compartment prevents access to adjacent ones above and below it, co-location cabinets are the perfect solution for multi-tenant buildings wherein each tenant's network equipment is housed in a shared space, inside a secure portion of a shared cabinet.

As you should now understand, there are far more types and sizes of doors for rack-mount enclosures than most IT professionals realize. It is our hope that this segment enables you to be a more discerning, knowledgeable buyer the next time you are in the market for a new network equipment or server cabinet.

Tech Tip #7 - Choosing Cabinet Doors

Here are today's tips for determining the which doors to choose on your next cabinet.

- If your cabinet will house lots of servers and other sensitive network electronics, always choose a cabinet with mesh front and rear doors.

- If your cabinet will be used primarily for passive equipment like patch panels and switches, choose whichever doors you find to be the most aesthetically pleasing.

- If your cabinet will be placed in a tight space (i.e. a closet, IDF, or store manager's office), choose one with split-rear doors (and split front doors if necessary) to reduce the amount of room needed to open the doors and access your equipment.

Be sure to come back next week for segments eight and nine of our Size Matters series, when we will talk about What's Included (or Not Included) with your new Rack-Mount Enclosure, and all of the fundamental Rack-Mount Accessories that ensure a new cabinet will look just the way you imagined it, and not like one of the IT Disasters we feature on our blog page every Friday.

Are you planning an IT rollout project involving the installation of new hardware and/or racks to multiple sites? Then download a free copy of TST's Best Practices for IT Rollout Projects.

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