Cable Types

A cable type captures a unique combination of cable medium, profile, and end connectors, providing a canonical reference for cables modeled in NetBox. NetBox does not ship a native model for classifying cables this way, so cable types are maintained by this plugin and referenced from BOM line items and spare items in place of a DCIM type.

Cable types are normally created automatically during BOM generation: whenever a matched cable does not yet have a corresponding type, one is created on the fly. NetBox's cable model carries no connector information, so auto-created cable types always leave the connector fields blank; fill them in afterward (or create a cable type manually) to fully describe the orderable cable. Length and color are tracked as variant attributes on the line item or spare item rather than as fields on the cable type itself.

Fields

Type

The cable's physical medium (e.g. CAT6A, MMF OM4, or SMF OS2). Choices are inherited from NetBox's native cable type choices.

Profile

The cable's profile designation (e.g. 1C1P, 2C4P trunk, or 1C2P:2C1P breakout). Optional. Choices are inherited from NetBox's native cable profile choices.

Connector A / Connector B

The connector type at each end of the cable (e.g. 8P8C, LC, MPO, C13, C14). Both are optional. Recording connectors lets a cable type represent a specific orderable SKU - fiber cables in particular differ enormously by connector (LC vs SC vs MPO), as do power cables by plug type.

The available connector choices are drawn from NetBox's own connector definitions and are limited based on the selected cable type:

• Power cables offer the union of NetBox's power port (inlet) and power outlet connector types (e.g. IEC C13/C14, NEMA, ITA).
• All other cables (copper, fiber, coaxial, USB) offer NetBox's interface port connector types (e.g. 8P8C, LC, SC, MPO, USB-C).

A connector that is not valid for the chosen cable type is rejected on save. The combination of type, profile, connector A, and connector B must be unique.