A fiber-optic patch panel is used to separate out the fibers within a fiber-optic cable. By using one of these panels, the fibers can be spliced to individual fibers on other cables, allowing the cables to be crossed and connected in a variety of ways. In addition, the panel creates a safe environment in which to work with exposed fibers.

There are two main types of fiber-optic patch panels. One is a wall-mounted device, which, in its most basic form, can keep 12 different fibers separate from one another. If the fiber-optic cable has more than 12 fibers, the extra fibers can be moved to a second panel or an engineer can use a panel that is designed to hold more fibers separately. Wall-mounted panels can be constructed to hold up to 144 fibers at once.

The other type of panel is a rack-mounted panel. This type of panel holds the fibers horizontally and is often designed to open like a drawer. Sliding the panel open gives an optical engineer easy access to the fibers inside.