A meet-me room (MMR) is a secured room inside a data center or carrier hotel where carriers, network providers and tenants terminate their cabling so they can be connected to each other. When you order a cross-connect to a carrier, the cable usually runs from your cabinet or cage to a patch panel in the MMR, where it is joined to the carrier’s panel. In a multi-tenant facility the MMR is the physical center of interconnection.
At a glance
- The MMR is the room where networks in a building physically meet, usually through patch panels.
- Access is typically limited to the operator’s staff and sometimes carrier technicians; tenants order work rather than doing it themselves.
- Larger facilities often have more than one MMR, which can help with capacity and with diverse connections.
- Who operates the MMR, and on what terms, shapes how open the building is to new carriers.
What problem it solves
In a building with many carriers and many tenants, connecting every party directly to every other would mean cables running everywhere, with no clear record of what goes where and no control over who touches what. Each new connection would be a custom project, and faults would be hard to trace.
The MMR solves that by giving everyone a common meeting point. Each carrier runs its fiber from the building entrance to its patch panels in the MMR. Each tenant has cabling from its space to its own panel there. A new connection is then a short, documented jumper between two panels. That makes cross-connects faster, cleaner and easier to support, and it keeps the most sensitive part of the building’s network under tight control.
How it works
Carrier side. Carriers bring fiber into the building through its entrances and the minimum point of entry (MPOE), then run it to racks or panels they lease in the MMR. Some place active equipment there; others only terminate fiber.
Tenant side. Tenants have cabling from their cabinet, cage or suite to panels in the MMR, either pre-installed by the operator or ordered when needed.
Connecting. When a tenant orders a cross-connect, operator technicians install a jumper between the tenant’s panel position and the carrier’s, using the position given in the carrier’s letter of authorization. The connection is tested and recorded.
Security and control. MMRs usually have stricter access controls than the rest of the building, often with escorted access and logging, because a mistake there can affect many customers.
Multiple MMRs. Some facilities have two or more MMRs, sometimes on different floors with separate power, so that critical connections can avoid a single point of failure. Whether your redundant connections actually use different rooms is something to confirm.
For help choosing a facility with the connections you need, see our Colocation solution page.
When it matters for buyers
- Choosing a data center. The carriers present in the MMR, and the rules for adding new ones, determine your network choices.
- Designing for resilience. If your two carriers terminate in the same MMR, that room is a shared point of failure.
- Planning connections. Knowing where your cabling lands in the MMR helps when ordering cross-connects and troubleshooting.
- Bringing in a new carrier. A carrier must be able to reach the MMR before it can serve you; check what that requires.
Questions to ask vendors
- How many meet-me rooms does the facility have, and are they on separate power and cooling?
- Which carriers have a presence in each meet-me room?
- Who operates the MMR, and are there fees or restrictions for carriers that want to join?
- Can our redundant cross-connects be routed through different MMRs and pathways?
- What access controls and logging apply to the MMR?
- How long do cross-connects through the MMR typically take to provision?
How it differs from the minimum point of entry (MPOE)
The MPOE is the physical point where outside cabling enters a building or first becomes accessible inside it. The demarcation point is a different concept: the boundary where the carrier’s responsibility ends. The two may coincide, but they are not the same thing, and a carrier’s demarcation can sit elsewhere, such as at its panel in the MMR or in a tenant’s space. The MMR is a room where many networks are connected to each other. In a large data center, carrier fiber typically passes the entrance and then runs to the MMR. In smaller buildings these functions may share a space, which is one reason the terms get mixed up.