The term "comms" is actually a shortened version of "communications", which was the next industry to adopt this very useful design concept. Broadcasting companies and other industries that worked with audio and video equipment found that the massive wiring networks that were needed to route signals through their systems would quickly end up as a pile of "spaghetti" without some organization. Thus the communications industries picked up the ball and ran with it, resulting in more advanced patch bay designs and a modular approach that collected various components into one central cabinet.
The data processing world would likely be lost without these comms cabinets. It is hard to imagine any network of significant size functioning simply with their data devices stacked around a room, with snakes of all kinds strewn across the floor. This may work for the smallest of systems, but even the smallest LAN is comprised of several modules, all with intricate patch setups. This is where a comms cabinet becomes so important, for many reasons.
Continue read here
Comms Cabinet
