I have lots of "1-to-1" connections between network appliances.
> I'm trying to think of the most effective (not efficient!) way
> of doing so.
>
> E.g., imagine two switch-like appliances (lots of ports arranged
> side by side). They have to be connected to each other.
>
> One approach is to locate them physically adjacent and use identical
> length cords to connect port 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, etc. This works
> as long as 1 ALWAYS connects to 1 and never, e.g., 18!
>
> When you have more than two such devices, there are other options.
> E.g., imagine a set of 8.
>
> You can interleave them: AaBbCcDd and try tot same 1-to-1 connection.
> With the same caveat.
>
> Or, could create "sandwiches" where half of A goes to half of its
> counterpart "above" with the other half to the counterpart "below".
> Esp for devices with two or more rows of 8P8Cs.
>
> You could lump all of the devices of one type together and
> those of their counterparts: ABCDabcd
>
> Or, not exploit proximity and just put them where they fit: AabcBCDd >
> Its an issue because you have a lot of potential "tangle" as well as
> gaining physical access to ports that may end up buried in a ratsnest.
> The datacenter solution is just to dress the cables off to the side
> and keep the connection faces relatively exposed. That comes at the
> expense of more cable and the difficulty of extracting/inserting a
> cable from that neat bundle. (Recall that I have to address users
> who may be blind or physically disabled.)
The 'sandwich' arrangement will be easiest for a blind person because they only have to remember one linear order of the ports:
ABCDEFG... abcdefg...
There is a risk with the 'sandwich' system that someone could plug an output to another output in the same row.
Another possibility would be to use a matrix with shorting plugs and no connecting leads. If it is imperative that only one-to-one connections are permitted, the sockets could be break jacks to interrupt the connection to all the subsequent jacks in that row or column. (The disadvantage of break jacks is that there are a lot of series contacts to go faulty.)