Minimum Patch Length?

[PinkFloydEffect]

I was about to re-cable our entire patch rack with 12" cables until one of my coworkers mentioned a minimum patch cable length of 3 meters. I want to move our switches up directly below each patch panel so that I can eliminate the cable management rows with a direct shot from the patch panels to the switches.

I was under the impression this applies to linking switches but not from the switch to a patch panel? The patch panel only terminates a patch cable to the Ethernet runs so I do not see how it would have a negative affect? We are using 48 port Cisco 3750s if that makes any difference, and my intended patch cables would be Cat6 from 12-18"

I have seen this often done on a YouTube channel by the name of FiberNinja which is where I got the idea from.

Thoughts?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Personally I'd never heard of a minimum length for Cat5e/6 patch cables. We must have had 100+ 1 meter cables in our patch cabinets. If it's not allowed why are all the cable suppliers selling 1, 1.5, 2 and 3 meter cables? (Although I never used anything less than 0.5 m in a cabinet).

Looking at Google the minimum length argument seems to be a myth based on some misreading of the specs. They do need to be good quality (i.e. upto spec.) cables though.

 

[dosborne]

Back in the day, we used 1000's of short patch cables. 8", 12" were the ideal lengths in our particular setup and came directly from the manufacturer of the equipment.

I still have a couple 4" cables I use today.

 

[MichaelCG]

Man it has been waaaaaay too many years since I had to think about this....but if I am recalling correctly, this was back in the days of hubs. I don't think it really applied in the switch days anymore?? And it was between devices, not patch panels.

 

[Trip]

@PinkFloydEffect - Your coworker would be wrong, plain and simple. There is effectively no minimum for patch cable length, and you can find pre-made patch in as short as 6-inch lengths from almost every major vendor out there. So go ahead with 1-foot'ers, 6-inchers, whatever the use-case calls for. You'll be just fine.