North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Cable Colors

  • From: Peter Wohlers
  • Date: Mon Jun 16 20:12:11 2008
JoeSox wrote:
Hello Newbie here (hopefully I have the correct list),

I was just wondering if anyone knows of a website with recommended
colors for cables for a new datacenter?
I have written some things down but I don't want to get stuck saying
'darn, I wish I would have bought this color for this type, now I am
stuck'.
What standard color to use if voice and data on same interface etc. Thanks.

As you can see, by and large, people assign colors to functions. What color to what function varies like the wind. Unlike a previous employer whose colo-manager person insisted on using colors to represent cable lengths (Doh!), color -> function mapping seems pretty universal.

About 7% of the male population in the US has red-green colorblindness, so keep that in mind. Simpler schemes trump more complex ones (as do most things in networking) and makes cable-purchasing/stocking less of an issue.

--Peter