As fiber cable network is built by drawing the long lines of physical cables, it is highly impossible to lay a continuous cable end-to-end. Then there comes the optical fiber pigtail, one of the cable assemblies, has a connector on one end and a length of exposed fiber on another end to melt together with fiber optic cable. By melting together the glass fiber cable, it can reach a minimum insertion loss.
Pigtails are terminated on one end with a connector, and typically the other side is spliced to OSP (Outside Plant Cable). They may be simplex: (single fiber), or multi-fiber up to 144 fibers. Pigtails do have male and female connectors in which male connectors will be used for direct plugging of an optical transceiver while the female connectors are mounted on a wall mount or patch panel. Fiber optical pigtails are usually used to realize the connection between patch panels in a Central Office or Head End and OSP cable. Often times they may also provide a connection to another splice point outside of the Head End or central office. The purpose of this is because various jacket materials may only be used a limited distance inside the building.
You may confused the purpose between fiber optic connector, fiber optic patch cord and fiber optic pigtail. Here we will figure it out.
Fiber optic connector is used for connecting fiber. Using one or two fiber optic connectors in one cable has two items with different assistance in fiber optical solutions.
Fiber optic patch cords(or called fiber jumpers) used as a connection from a patch panel to a network element. Fiber optic patch cords, thick protective layer, generally used in the connection between the optical transceiver and the terminal box.
Fiber Optic Pigtail called pigtail line, only one end of the connector, while the other end is a cable core decapitation. Welding and connecting to other fiber optic cable core, often appear in the fiber optic terminal box, used to connect fiber optic cable, etc.
Fiber optic cable can be terminated in a cross connect patch panel using both pigtail or field-installable connector fiber termination techniques. The pigtail approach requires that a splice be made and a splice tray be used in the patch panel. The pigtail approach provides the best quality connection and is usually the quickest.
Fiber pigtails are with premium grade connectors and with typical 0.9mm outer diameter cables. Simplex fiber pigtail and duplex fiber pigtails are available, with different cable color, cable diameter and jacket types optional. The most common is known as the fusion splice on pigtail, this is done easy in field with a multi-fiber trunk to break out the multi-fibers cable into its component for connection to the end equipment. And the 12 fiber or 6 fiber multi color pigtail are easy to install and provide a premium quality fiber optic connection. Fiber optic pigtails can be with various types of fiber optic terminations such as SC, FC, ST, LC, MU, MT-RJ, MTP, MPO, etc.
Pigtails offer low insertion loss and low back-reflection. They are especially designed for high count fiber fusion splicing. Pigtails are often bought in pairs to be connected to endpoints or other fiber runs with patch cables.