Mechanical Splicing: This method involves holding a fiber optic pigtail and fiber patch cord together precisely. Get the wrong connector type, the wrong polish, or skip proper fusion splicing technique—and you're looking at elevated signal loss, increased back reflection, and a. The most efficient way to terminate a fiber run is by using a pigtail. A fiber pigtail is a short length of optical fiber that comes with a high-quality, factory-polished connector already installed on one end, leaving a length of exposed glass on the other. The connector end can be linked directly to network equipment, while the exposed end can be spliced to another fiber optic cable.