What is the difference between them?

Overview of Patch Panel

Typically, patch panels are installed in racks or enclosures to organize connections between cables and optical communication equipment. It can be used in fiber optic and copper cabling systems as a termination for cables running vertically or horizontally. Patch panels are used as passive network devices that can bundle multiple ports together to connect incoming and outgoing lines.

Overview of ODF

ODF, short for Optical Distribution Frame, is an important part of building a secure and flexible optical network environment. The equipment is widely used in optical communication equipment rooms, optical fiber connection equipment, and can be used as a protector for optical cable terminals and line transmission.
The difference between ODF and patch panel
While both fiber optic patch panels and patch panels are ideal solutions for cable management, there are some differences in design, type, etc.

Design
A typical patch panel consists of four parts, the enclosure, the adapter panel, the connector adapter, and the splice tray. The 1U rack-mount HD fiber optic enclosure provided by FS.COM, with dimensions of 1.73″×17.64″×18.41″, is designed to accommodate up to 4 series of MTP modular boxes or fiber optic adapter panels in a 1U space. This product adopts The newly designed parallel sliding drawer can push and pull more stably and pull faster.

Fiber optic patch panels are modular in design with wall panel trays. It can be pre-installed with different optical adapters and pigtails. Indoor equipment can be large or small in size, like patch panels. The FS.COM 19″ ODF measures 480mm×250mm×1U and provides flexible wiring access, expandable frame design and comprehensive cable management.

Types
Fiber optic and copper patch panels are available. The copper patch panel is suitable for shielded and unshielded copper cables such as CAT5e, CAT6, and CAT7. In addition, due to different designs, patch panels can be divided into rack-mounted and wall-mounted patch panels for different purposes. FS.COM provides 12-port, 24-port, 48-port 1U high-fiber patch panels.

ODF is usually divided into floor-mounted, rack-mounted and wall-mounted ODF for users to choose. FS.COM provides 1U 12-core, 2U 24-core, 3U 48-core, 6U 96-core and other optical fiber distribution frames.

Conclusion
Hanlan offers a variety of ODFs and patch panels, all of which are cost-effective solutions for your application. Because of their differences, you should choose one based on your actual needs.