The tangle that grows in a rack when jumpers are added without proper lengths, routing or management, until nobody can trace a cord or reach a port without unplugging something else. Beyond looking bad it causes outages when someone pulls the wrong jumper and overbends fibers where cords pile up. Cleanups usually mean labeling both ends and replacing everything with right-length jumpers.
The MDF is pure spaghetti, we're doing the cleanup in a maintenance window or not at all.
Also heard as
- rat's nest
Related terms
Jumper
A short fiber cable with connectors on both ends, used to patch equipment to panels or panels to each other.
Patch panel
A rack-mounted enclosure of adapters where permanent cable fibers end and jumpers connect them to equipment.
Patch
To connect two ports, usually equipment to panel or panel to panel, with a jumper.
Bend radius
The tightest curve a fiber or cable can take without extra loss or damage, stated separately for pulling and at rest.