You may easily find a lot of informations about switching, routing, VLAN's, configuring firewalls and much more things related to a computer network but you may face a simple yet complicated problem: how to label the ports and what names should those ports have ?

Why I have written this document ?

After many network upgrades (including three movements of so called "Server's Room" with all the racks and switches and patch panels) I have missed a clear way to label the network ports.

Here are the guiding lines that I have established before numbering and labeling the ports:

the names should be as descriptive as possible, at least for providing a simple way to identify the room they end in;
the ports and patch cords should be easily identifiable;
there should be an easily accessible visual representation;
port names should be written directly on the patch panels.

This problem does not have a simple solution as you may assume. In short, I have written this document in the hope that you, the reader, will skip this step of reinventing the wheel.

Names

First and the most important step is to give adequate and short names to the network ports.
Why short ? Because of limited space for writing them in the patch panels
Why adequate ? To provide a simple identification method of the room they end in

To do this I have established the following schema to form port names:
port name = <building floor> <room id> <port number>

building floor a single character number;
room id a single letter;
port number a two character number.

This schema of four characters accommodates for a building with maximum of 9 floors, 26 rooms per floor and 99 ports per room. By extending the number of characters used you could extend the schema as much as you need.

5A01 for the first port in the room labeled A
5A02 for the second port in the room labeled A
...
5A08 for the eighth port in the room labeled A
5B01 for the first port in the room labeled B
... and so on

Note: Clockwise schema

Port numbering inside a room is done using a clockwise schema counting from the left as you enter through the door.
Room numbering inside a floor is done using a clockwise schema counting from left as you enter to the level.

Note: About the drawing

For drawing simplicity, I have numbered only the ports in the first two rooms.

The building plan

If the building is small enough you can draw each floor on a sheet of paper and stick those sheets to the wall of one of the active equipments racks.
If the building is large enough I think that the best solution is to make a small book with the building plan and put a copy in the server's room.

each port should be figured where it reside physically;
number of each port in a room should be visible;
room id should be written for each room;
on each plan, in a visible position, should be noted the level's assigned number;
do not forget to draw each door to check if you have used the same counting schema

If it is possible you should assign a color for each floor. This color will be used when you build the labels as a background color. This way it should be more easy to identify the ports on the patch panels.
Of course, for background, you cannot use too much colors, I strongly recommend you to use light colors because if you make a mistake, using just a ball pen you could correct it until a new set of labels will be put in place.
If you have many floors, group more of them together for a background color.

Note

The whole idea of background color is to reduce the searching space.

Labels and colors

I have measured the patch panels and I have made a drawing using Corel Draw for the labels.
After that I have listed the labels on self adhesive paper and stick them directly to the patch panels.

Patch cords

Another good idea, based on working experience, is to place colored caps to the patch cords, in the server's room (I mean, not building wide). For existent patch cords you could use colored duct tape (it should be easy to find, at least, red, yellow, blue, green and black duct tape).
Let's see an example of why and how:

red connectors for the patch cords that interconnect routers and switches and for the ones that connect servers;
yellow connectors for IP phones;
green connectors for PC's;

History

Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. There may be errors and inaccuracies that could be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, the author do not take any responsibility.

All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.

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Last page modification is 23 September 2005

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