A fiber pigtail is a single short piece of optical fiber, that has an optical connector on one end and a length of exposed fiber at the other end.

The end of the pigtail is stripped back and fusion spliced to another single fiber. 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.

Pigtails can have female connectors and be mounted in a wall mount or patch panel, often in pairs although single-fiber solutions exist, to allow them to be connected to endpoints or other fiber runs with patch cables. Alternatively they can have male connectors and plug directly into an optical device.