Fibre cables need to have connectors fitted before they can attach to other equipment. Pigtails and fanout kits are two different solutions to terminate the fibre with connectors.

Pigtails

A fibre pigtail is a single short, usually unbuffered

Buffer (optical fiber)

In a fiber optic cable, a buffer is one type of component used to encapsulate one or more optical fibers for the purpose of providing such functions as mechanical isolation, protection from physical damage and fiber identification....

, optical fibre

Optical fiber cable

An optical fiber cable is a cable containing one or more optical fibers. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the environment where the cable will be deployed....

 that has an optical connector on one end and a length of exposed fibre at the other end.

The end of the pigtail is stripped

Stripping (fiber)

Stripping is the act of removing the protective polymer coating around optical fiber in preparation for fusion splicing. The splicing process begins by preparing both fiber ends for fusion, which requires that all protective coating is removed or stripped from the ends of each fiber...

 and fusion spliced

Fusion splicing

Fusion splicing is the act of joining two optical fibers end-to-end using heat. The goal is to fuse the two fibers together in such a way that light passing through the fibers is not scattered or reflected back by the splice, and so that the splice and the region surrounding it are almost as...

 to a single fibre of a multi-fibre trunk to break out the multi-fibre cable into its component fibres for connection to the end equipment.

Pigtails can have female connectors and be mounted in a patch panel

Patch panel

A patch panel or patch bay is a panel, typically rackmounted, that houses cable connections. One typically shorter patch cable will plug into the front side, whereas the back holds the connection of a much longer and more permanent cable...

, often in pairs although single-fibre solutions exist, to allow them to be connected to endponts or other fibre runs with patch fibres. Alternatively they can have male connectors and plug directly into an optical transceiver

Transceiver

A transceiver is a device comprising both a transmitter and a receiver which are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing. When no circuitry is common between transmit and receive functions, the device is a transmitter-receiver. The term originated in the early 1920s...

.

Fanout Kit (breakout kit)

A fanout kit is a set of empty jackets designed to protect the fragile tight buffered strands of fibre cables that require individual termination without splicing any fibre pigtail or needing to mount any protective enclosure. This is normally an option with fibre distribution cable, or sometimes loose buffer or ribbon cable, because these types of cable contain multiple strands that are designed for a permanent termination.

Zip-cord

Zip-cord

Zip-cord refers to 2 or more electrical conductors held together by an insulating jacket that can be easily separated simply by pulling apart. The term is also used with optical fiber cables consisting of 2 optical fibers joined in a similar manner...

 style jackets, including those that contain Aramid yarn as the strength member, can be slipped over usually multiple fibre strands coming out of a loose buffer cable to convert it to a complete set of single-fibre cables that directly attach optical connectors. A plastic boot is normally used for strain relief and protection from moisture. Use of a breakout kit enables a fibre-optic cable containing multiple loose buffer tubes to receive connectors without the splicing of pigtails..