Toolless keystone patch panels provide a way to properly terminate and organize your structured cabling into a single place, greatly reducing cable clutter and even increasing performance. Professional installers do not use Ethernet patch cords already terminated with 8P8C (RJ45) plugs to wire up a home or business. The pros terminate solid copper Ethernet cable from patch panels to keystones jacks and use patch cords to complete the installation. This installation type is known as rack to jack and also as a structured cabling system.
Of great importance in 10GBASE-T networks (10G) is the negative effects of Alien Crosstalk (ANEXT). Due to the high operating frequency of 500MHz required to achieve 10 Gb/s speeds, cable to cable interference can become a significant problem at the patch panel when using UTP Cat6A Ethernet cable. Most toolless modular patch panels are straight across in nature, so installers have opted for shielded patch panels, Cat6A cable and hardware to overcome this interference issue. The downside is that shielded cable drives up the cost of the installation and increases the complexity of cable handling and termination difficulty. The unique 3-D staggered approach to our patch panel negates the need for shielded Cat6A Ethernet cable and hardware to specifically defeat Alien Crosstalk at the panel side.
As a key component, a patch panel needs to be durable. Traditional monolithic punch down patch panels are Category rated as they already include the necessary PCB (printed circuit board) to achieve the stated Category performance. A major downside to traditional 110 punch down patch panels is if one port fails, this may necessitate replacement of the entire patch panel and re-termination of all Ethernet cable that runs to it. Tool-less keystone patch panels do not have this shortcoming. If one keystone should fail, it does not affect other keystones. Simply replace the affected keystone jack and re-terminate a single cable and go!