What use are those glass panels?

Question

I often come across glass panels that are attached to the edge of the ceilings of public interior areas.

What purpose do they serve?

Answer 1

These are fire traps required by code. flames rising up from the initial fire don't get a chance to spread to neighboring areas.

The automated fire sprinklers will deploy in a smaller area thus eliminating the shortage of water.

Also, emergency partitions deploy in a smaller area, with less crowd to use the exits, and many other advantages!