Mounting Arrangement for Telecommunications Equipment

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to telecommunications equipment and, in particular, to enclosures for housing and protecting telecommunications equipment.

2. Description of the Related Art

A building entrance protector (BEP) is an enclosure used to house and protect telecommunications equipment. For example, a BEP may house the components used to interface between a multi-wire cable providing telephone service to a building and the twisted pairs of copper wire for individual telephones distributed throughout the building. These interface components may include splicing connectors used to break out pairs of wires from a multi-wire cable, as well as electrical isolation interface components, such as protector panels used to receive high-voltage/high-current plug-in protectors, and connectors, such as insulation displacement connectors (IDCs), used to terminate twisted pairs from individual telephones. The BEP may have two or more hinged pieces that define one or more different compartments within the BEP for such functions as breaking out twisted pairs of wires from the multi-wire cable, connecting the twisted pairs to electrical isolation components, connecting the electrical isolation components to IDC connectors, and terminating the twisted pairs at the IDC connectors.

A splicing connector is designed to terminate a certain maximum number of twisted pairs from a cable. Similarly, a protector panel is designed to receive a certain maximum number of plug-in protectors, each of which corresponds to a single twisted pair. An efficient design for a building entrance protector will accommodate splicing connectors and protector panels that handle the same maximum number of twisted pairs. In addition, the larger the maximum number of twisted pairs that can be handled, the greater the variety of applications for which the BEP can be used.

The present invention is directed to a mounting arrangement for splicing connectors that enables a building entrance protector to be configured with splicing connectors and protector panels that handle the same relative large maximum number of twisted pairs, thereby providing a building entrance protector that can be used for a wide range of applications.

In one embodiment, the present invention is an enclosure for telecommunications equipment, comprising a base and an assembly mounted within the base. The assembly comprises two splicing connectors mounted back-to-back with a bracket, wherein, after terminating one or more wires at splicing contacts on one side of the assembly, the assembly can be removed from the base, rotated, and remounted within the base to expose splicing contacts on another side of the assembly for terminating additional wires.

In another embodiment, the present invention is a bracket for an enclosure for telecommunications equipment having a base. The bracket is adapted to mount two splicing connectors back-to-back to form an assembly adapted to be mounted within the base, wherein, after terminating one or more wires at splicing contacts on one side of the assembly, the assembly can be removed from the base, rotated, and remounted within the base to expose splicing contacts on another side of the assembly for terminating additional wires.

Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. 1A-C show front, cross-sectional end, and cross-sectional side views, respectively, of a building entrance protector, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 2(A)-(F) show views of the top and bottom mounting brackets of the BEP of FIGS. 1(A)-(C); and

FIG. 3 is a detail of FIG. 1(B) showing a side view of the two splicing connectors and the bottom mounting bracket.

FIGS. 1(A)-(C) show front, cross-sectional end, and cross-sectional side views, respectively, of a building entrance protector 100 mounted with an arrangement of telecommunications equipment, according to one embodiment of the present invention. BEP 100 has a base 102 and a lid 104 (partially shown in FIG. 1(A)) pivotally connected to base 102. Base 102 has two 100-pair protector panels 106 mounted on mounting plane 108 of base 102 for receiving up to 200 plug-in protectors. In addition, base 102 has two 100-pair splicing connectors 110 for terminating up to 200 twisted pairs broken out from a cable 118, where the two splicing connectors 110 are mounted back-to-back using mounting brackets 112 and 114 in a splice chamber 116. In one implementation, the splicing connectors are 66-type D)C connector blocks.

FIGS. 2(A)-(C) show top, side, and end views of top mounting bracket 112 of BEP 100. Similarly, FIGS. 2(D)-(F) show top, side, and end views of bottom mounting bracket 114 of BEP 100. Each bracket has a key hole 202 punched in a mounting flange 204 on each side. As shown in the side views of FIGS. 2(B) and 2(E), the center of each bracket also has two slotted circular punches 206 for passing and trapping fuse link wires from the splicing connectors 110.

FIG. 3 is a detail of FIG. 1(B) showing a side view of the two splicing connectors 110 and bottom mounting bracket 114.

When the two splicing connectors 110 are mounted to the two mounting brackets 112 and 114, they form a single assembly, which can then be mounted via key holes 202 to four bosses 120 in cable chamber 116 of BEP 100 using screws 122. The use of key holes allows the splicing-connector/mounting-bracket assembly to be mounted and, if needed, removed from bosses 120 without having to completely remove screws 122 from the bosses.

In a typical application, BEP 100 is pre-wired in the factory such that, when BEP 100 is installed in a building, the wire-wrap contacts on the two 100-pair splicing connectors 110 are already wired to corresponding wire-wrap contacts on the two 100-pair protector panels 106. As shown in FIG. 3, when the two pre-wired splicing connectors 110 are mounted onto the mounting brackets 112 and 114 in the factory, a piece of foam insulation 302 may be compressed between the back faces of the splicing connectors. This foam insulation helps maintain the integrity of the wire-wrap connections by preventing the wires from slipping off the wire-wrap contacts.

When BEP 100 is installed in a building, when twisted pairs may be broken out from a multiwire cable, such as cable 118 of FIG. 1(A), and terminated at the IDC contacts of splicing connectors 110. In a preferred procedure, twisted pairs are terminated at the exposed IDC contacts on one side of the mounted splicing-connector/mounting-bracket assembly. When that side is filled with terminated pairs, screws 122 can be loosened, the splicing-connector/mounting-bracket assembly can be removed from bosses 120 by sliding the assembly to allow the heads of screws 122 to pass through the large ends of key holes 202, rotated 180 degrees to expose the IDC contacts on the other side of the assembly, and then remounted onto bosses 120 passing the heads of screws 122 through the large ends of key holes 202. The newly exposed IDC contacts can then be used to terminate additional twisted pairs from the multi-wire cable.

Thus, the present invention provides an efficient scheme for mounting splicing connectors and protector panels that handle a relatively large number of twisted pairs, into the finite volume provided within a building entrance protector.

Although the bracket arrangement shown in FIGS. 1(A)-(C) and 2(A)-(F) has two separate bracket pieces 112 and 114, alternative implementations of the present invention may utilize a single-piece bracket.

Although the present invention has been described in the context of a building entrance protector having a base and a lid that define a single level of interior chambers, those skilled in the art will understand that the BEP may have intermediate levels that may define, with the lid and the base, two or more different levels of interior chambers. Moreover, although only one multi-wire cable has been shown in the figures, it will be understood that two or more cables can be terminated within the same splicing chamber.

Similarly, although the invention has been described in the context of building entrance protectors, those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention can be applied to other types of enclosures for telecommunications equipment in which relatively large numbers of wires are to be terminated at connectors, such as 66-type IDC connector blocks.

It will be further understood that various changes in the details, materials, and arrangements of the parts which have been described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of this invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the following claims.