Glossary — Stronghold Contracting Group

A

ADSS: All-Dielectric Self-Supporting cable. Contains no conductive element of any kind, so it needs no bonding or grounding and can be placed in the supply space near energized conductors. Dead-ended pole to pole without a strand and sagged to the manufacturer's tension chart for the span and loading district; jacket is selected for the space potential to resist dry-band arcing.
Aerial Placement: Installing cable overhead on poles rather than underground — either lashed to a separately placed strand, or self-supported as ADSS or figure-8 dead-ended pole to pole — along with the anchors, guys, and hardware that support it.
As-Built: The final record of what was actually constructed, including all field changes from the original design, compiled from field red-lines. Delivered at closeout as drawings, a GIS dataset, or both, and relied on for all future maintenance, locating, and splice work.

B

Backbone: The high-capacity portion of a network connecting major nodes, as distinguished from distribution and drop plant serving individual subscribers.
BEAD: Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. NTIA-administered federal funding distributed through the states to extend service to unserved and underserved locations. Administered by each state's broadband office, so eligibility rules, match requirements, and timelines vary by state.
Bend Radius: The radius of the tightest bend a cable can take without macrobend attenuation or physical damage. Manufacturers publish two limits: a larger loaded radius that applies while the cable is under pulling tension, and a smaller unloaded radius for the installed cable. Both are held in vaults, snowshoes, slack loops, and pull setups.
Bore: A single horizontal drilled path under an obstacle. Also used as shorthand for the directional drilling operation itself.
Bore Log: The record of a drilled shot, capturing rod-by-rod depth, pitch, and offset, plus measured clearance at each utility crossed, so the installed path can be reconstructed, proved against required separations, and carried into the as-built.

C

Cabinet: An outdoor enclosure housing splice points, splitters, or active equipment at a distribution point in the network.
Central Office: The carrier facility where outside plant terminates on the MDF or fiber distribution frame and connects to active transport and switching equipment. Smaller unstaffed equivalents on a fiber route are called huts or cabinets.
Conduit: Protective pipe placed underground, on structures, or in buildings, through which cable is later pulled or jetted. Specified by diameter, wall rating, and inside finish. Smoothwall and ribbed duct jet very differently. Conduit placed empty for future use is called spare or vacant duct.
CPE: Customer Premises Equipment. The router, gateway, set-top, or Wi-Fi equipment at a subscriber location, sitting behind the demarcation point on the customer side of the NID or ONT. Provider-supplied or customer-owned depending on the offer.
Cut: An accidental break in in-service cable — underground from third-party excavation, aerial from vehicle strikes, tree fall, or storm loading. Triggers emergency restoration: locate the fault by OTDR, expose it, splice service back up, then return for permanent repair.

D

Dark Fiber: Installed fiber with no optics lit on it, leased or sold as a strand rather than as a service. The buyer supplies its own transport equipment and controls the capacity. Contrast with spare or vacant duct, which is empty conduit with no cable in it at all.
DART: Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred. The rate of OSHA-recordable cases involving lost time, restricted duty, or job transfer, per 100 full-time workers per year — cases times 200,000 divided by hours worked. DART cases are a subset of TRIR cases, so DART always runs lower.
Directional Drilling: The steerable class of trenchless installation, of which HDD is the telecom form — the head is tracked and corrected in flight, unlike non-steerable methods such as missile boring or auger boring. See HDD.
Drop: The cable running from the last access point on the distribution plant — an aerial or buried terminal, pedestal, or handhole — to an individual subscriber premises, terminating at the NID or ONT. Placed aerially or buried.
Drop Bury: Placing a service drop underground — either a new drop or a temporary surface-laid one — by boring or plowing it in and restoring the surface behind it.
Duct Bank: Multiple conduits installed together in a common trench or bore, often encased in concrete, providing organized pathways for present and future cable.

E

EMR: Experience Modification Rate. A multiplier applied to a contractor's workers' compensation premium, calculated by NCCI or the state rating bureau from a three-year loss history excluding the most recent policy year. 1.0 is the industry baseline for the classification; below 1.0 is better than average. Many owners set an EMR ceiling as a prequalification gate.

F

Fault: A break, macrobend, bad splice, contaminated connector, or other defect causing excess loss, excess reflectance, or a complete break on a fiber link. Located by distance with an OTDR from the nearest access point.
Figure-8: A self-supporting cable with a steel messenger built into the jacket, so named for its cross-sectional shape. Placed aerially without a separate strand and dead-ended at poles. Because the messenger is metallic, figure-8 is bonded and grounded per NESC — unlike all-dielectric ADSS.
Frac-Out: An inadvertent return — drilling fluid escaping the bore under pressure and surfacing through soil, streambed, or pavement. Managed by controlling annular pressure and entry and exit depth, and by keeping containment and cleanup materials on the spread. Surface releases near water are reportable in most jurisdictions.
FTTH: Fiber to the Home. An architecture in which optical fiber runs all the way to the subscriber premises rather than terminating at a node or curb.
FTTx: The family of fiber access architectures, named by how far the fiber runs before copper or coax takes over — FTTH and FTTP to the premises, FTTC to the curb, FTTB to the building, FTTN to a node. FTTH and FTTP mean the same all-fiber case; FTTP just doesn't assume the premises is a home.
Fusion Splice: Permanently joining two fibers by cleaving, aligning, and fusing the ends with an electric arc, producing a continuous glass path. Typical field losses run under 0.10 dB with essentially no reflectance. It is the standard for OSP splicing.

H

Handhole: A below-grade enclosure giving access to underground cable for splicing, slack, and maintenance, worked from grade rather than entered. Rated by lid load class for its location. Distinguished from a vault, which is large enough for a technician to work inside.
HDD: Horizontal Directional Drilling. A trenchless method that drills a steerable pilot bore, then reams and pulls conduit back through it. Used to cross roads, rail, rivers, and congested areas without open excavation.

I

IDF: Intermediate Distribution Frame. A secondary distribution point inside a building, typically serving one floor or wing and connecting back to the MDF.
Innerduct: Duct placed inside a larger conduit to subdivide it so multiple cables can be pulled and managed independently. Rigid or corrugated innerduct gives each cable its own round path; fabric innerduct conforms to the cables instead and recovers far more usable space in existing or occupied conduit.
Insertion Loss: Optical power lost between two points, expressed in dB. Applies both to a single component — splice, connector, or splitter — and, in acceptance testing, to an entire link measured end to end with a light source and power meter and compared against the loss budget.

J

Jetting: Installing cable into duct with high-volume compressed air, which distributes drag along the whole cable instead of loading the pull end. Blowing floats the cable on air alone. Jetting adds a mechanical pusher working with it. Either allows far longer continuous runs than pulling, in a proofed and lubricated duct.
JHA: Job Hazard Analysis, also called a JSA. A pre-task review that breaks the job into steps, identifies the hazards in each, and records the controls that address them. Completed and signed by the crew before work begins, and revisited when conditions change.
Joint Use: The arrangement under which a pole carries attachments from more than one owner, typically a power utility plus one or more communications providers, governed by joint-use or pole attachment agreements. The pole is divided into supply space, a neutral safety zone, and communications space, with NESC separations between them.

L

Lashing: Binding communications cable to a supporting strand with continuously spun lashing wire, stainless or galvanized, using a lasher machine towed along the span. The strand carries the load; the lashing only holds the cable to it.
Last Mile: The access portion of the network reaching individual subscribers — distribution plant, terminals, and drops from the last aggregation point to the premises. It costs the most per passing of any segment of a build.
Locate: Marking the horizontal position of existing buried facilities before excavation, in APWA color code. One-call tickets cover member-owned facilities only; privately owned lines such as irrigation, yard lighting, and customer-owned laterals require a separate private locate arranged by the excavator or property owner.

M

Make-Ready: Engineering and field work required on existing poles before a new attachment can be added — transferring or rearranging existing attachments, replacing poles, and correcting clearance and separation violations. Scoped from a pole loading analysis, coordinated with the pole owner and other attachers, and generally paid for by the new attacher.
Mandrel: A rigid cylinder of specified diameter and length pulled through a conduit to prove the duct is clear, round, and free of collapses or offsets before cable is placed. Size the mandrel to the cable.
MDF: Main Distribution Frame. The primary termination and cross-connect point where outside plant enters a building or facility.
MDU: Multi-Dwelling Unit. A building with multiple residences, such as an apartment complex, condominium, student housing, or senior living community.
Mechanical Splice: Joining two fibers by aligning them in a precision sleeve with index-matching gel rather than fusing them. Faster and needs no power, but loss and reflectance are higher than a fusion splice and it drifts with temperature and age. Temporary restoration only.
Messenger: The support member carrying the weight of aerially placed cable. May be a separately placed strand the cable is lashed to, or a member built into the cable itself as in figure-8. Used interchangeably with strand when the support is separately placed.
Middle Mile: The transport segment between a last-mile network and the internet backbone or a major interconnection point — typically long-haul routes tying hubs, headends, and points of presence together. Distinct from backhaul, which is the specific link carrying traffic from an access node back to the core.
Missile Boring: Installing conduit with a pneumatic piercing tool driven through soil by compressed air, displacing and compacting rather than removing spoil. The tool is not steerable and cannot be tracked in flight, so accuracy comes from grade and alignment set on the launch cradle. Suited to short crossings under driveways, sidewalks, and narrow roads.
MSA: Master Service Agreement. The umbrella contract fixing rates, terms, insurance, safety requirements, and response obligations between an owner and a contractor, against which individual work orders and job packages are released without renegotiating terms each time.
Mud: Drilling fluid, typically bentonite with polymer additives, mixed to the soil conditions. Lubricates and cools the tooling, carries cuttings back to the entry pit, stabilizes the bore wall, and drives the mud motor on rock shots. Returns are contained, reclaimed, and disposed of as regulated waste.

N

NESC: National Electrical Safety Code, ANSI C2, published by IEEE on a five-year cycle. Governs clearances, separations, strength and loading, and work practices for overhead and underground supply and communications lines. Distinct from the NEC, which covers premises wiring inside buildings.
NID: Network Interface Device. The demarcation enclosure at a premises separating the provider's network from the customer's inside wiring.

O

OLTS: Optical Loss Test Set. A matched light source and power meter used to measure true end-to-end insertion loss on a link, referenced to a known launch condition. The Tier 1 acceptance test. It is what proves a link against its loss budget.
ONT: Optical Network Terminal. The subscriber end of a PON, converting the optical signal to the Ethernet and voice interfaces used inside the home or business. Often serves as or mounts at the demarcation point, with customer-owned CPE behind it. Called an ONU in some vendor and standards usage.
OSP: Outside Plant. All network infrastructure outside a building or central office, including aerial and underground cable, poles, conduit, vaults, and cabinets.
OTDR: Optical Time Domain Reflectometer. A single-ended instrument that launches pulses into a fiber and measures backscattered and reflected light against time, producing a trace that locates and characterizes splices, bends, connectors, and breaks by distance. Used for Tier 2 characterization; it does not replace end-to-end OLTS loss measurement.
Overlash: Lashing a new cable onto an existing lashed bundle on the same strand, adding capacity without setting new strand or poles. Because it increases wind and ice loading on the strand and pole, it still requires a loading analysis and the pole owner's authorization, and can trigger make-ready of its own.

P

Pedestal: A small above-ground enclosure housing splices and terminations at a distribution point, common in residential neighborhoods.
Plowing: Installing conduit or cable by pulling a blade through the soil and feeding product in behind it, at depth in a single pass with minimal surface disturbance. Vibratory plows oscillate the blade to cut; static plows pull it straight. Duct, tracer wire, and warning tape are commonly placed together in one pass.
PON: Passive Optical Network. An access architecture in which one feeder fiber from the central office is divided by passive optical splitters to serve many subscribers, with no powered equipment between the office and the ONT. Split ratio and splitter loss dominate the loss budget on an FTTH design.
Pole Loading: The structural analysis proving a pole can carry its existing and proposed attachments under the wind, ice, and temperature loads of its NESC loading district, with the required safety factor. Determines whether an attachment is approved as-is, requires make-ready, or requires a replacement pole.
Potholing: Exposing a buried facility with vacuum excavation or hand digging to visually confirm its exact depth and offset before boring or trenching near it. Also called daylighting. Pothole readings are recorded and used to set the bore profile and required clearances.
Pull Tension: The longitudinal force on a cable during installation, held below the manufacturer's maximum rated tension and monitored with a dynamometer or breakaway swivel. The installed residual tension limit is far lower than the dynamic pulling limit. Exceed either one and the fiber picks up attenuation.

R

RDOF: Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. An FCC program awarding support to carriers to build broadband in unserved and underserved census blocks, with buildout obligations tied to enforceable milestone deadlines. Those deadlines set the construction schedule.
Reamer: A cutting tool run through a pilot bore to enlarge it to the diameter the conduit requires. A back-reamer is pulled back toward the rig. A pre-reamer is pushed toward the exit, often in stepped passes in hard or unstable ground. Conduit is attached behind it through a swivel so drill string torque is not transmitted to the duct.
Red-Line: The field markup of a construction print recording what was actually built where it differs from design — route changes, added structures, revised footages, actual depths. Captured by the crew as work proceeds and used to produce the as-built.
Restoration: Returning a work site to its prior condition after construction — sod, seed, landscaping, concrete, asphalt, and pavement markings. Distinct from emergency restoration, which means repairing damaged in-service plant.
Return Loss: How much light a connector, mechanical splice, or break sends back toward the source, in dB. Higher return loss means less reflection, so higher is better. Poor return loss destabilizes transmitters and shows as a reflective spike on an OTDR trace. Insertion loss is the separate figure for light lost going forward.
Ribbon Fiber: Fibers bonded side by side in a ribbon, commonly 12 or 24, so all fibers in the ribbon can be mass fusion spliced in one operation. High-count cables increasingly use rollable ribbon, intermittently bonded so it folds into a round bundle for density while still mass splicing.
Right-of-Way: The corridor a facility may legally occupy, held by easement, franchise, or dedication. Public ROW along roads is permitted through the DOT or municipality; private ROW requires an easement from the landowner. Securing it is permitting work. It is also the most common cause of schedule slip on a route.
Riser: The vertical cable pathway carrying backbone between floors of a building, from the MDF or entrance facility up to each IDF. Riser penetrations are sleeved and firestopped to restore the fire rating of the floor assembly, and riser-rated cable is required in the pathway.
Rod: A single length of drill pipe in a drill string; bore depth and progress are tracked rod by rod. Also used for the fiberglass duct rod pushed through a conduit to prove it clear and pull a mule tape or rope through behind it.

S

Slack: Extra cable coiled and stored at planned points — in vaults and handholes underground, on snowshoes aerially — so a future splice or repair can be pulled to a workable location without cutting into or re-pulling the run. Quantities and locations are set by the design and recorded on the as-built.
Snowshoe: An aerial bracket used to store slack cable on a pole line while maintaining the cable's minimum bend radius.
Span: In aerial construction, the length of line between two adjacent poles — the unit strand tension, sag, and clearance are calculated against. The optical path between two endpoints is a link or a segment, though the terms get mixed in the field.
Splice Case: A re-enterable sealed enclosure protecting fiber splices and trays from moisture and physical damage, mounted in vaults and handholes, on strand, or in pedestals. Also called a splice closure. Pressure or flash tested after closing to prove the seal.
Splitter: A passive optical device dividing one input fiber among multiple outputs in a PON, typically 1:8, 1:16, or 1:32. The split is the dominant loss term in an FTTH budget — roughly 10.5 dB at 1:8 and 17.5 dB at 1:32 — and is placed in a cabinet, vault, or terminal.
Strand: Stranded galvanized steel support wire installed pole to pole, dead-ended and tensioned, that carries lashed communications cable. Specified by rated breaking strength — commonly 6M, 6.6M, or 10M extra high strength — sized for span length, loading district, and the cables it will carry.
Sweep: A gradual bend in conduit sized to keep cable within its minimum bend radius during and after installation.

T

Tier 1 / Tier 2 Testing: The two levels of fiber certification. Tier 1 is end-to-end insertion loss, length, and polarity measured with an OLTS — the pass/fail against the loss budget. Tier 2 adds bi-directional OTDR traces characterizing every event along the link, on top of Tier 1.
Loss Budget: The total optical loss a link is allowed to have and still work, calculated from fiber attenuation, every splice, and every connector across the distance. Measured results are compared against it at acceptance; a link that exceeds its budget gets reworked before turn-up.
Toolbox Talk: A short crew safety briefing held at the jobsite before work, covering the day's specific hazards and controls.
Tracer Wire: An insulated conductive wire placed with non-metallic conduit so the buried path can be energized and traced by standard locating equipment. Only useful if it is electrically continuous end to end, with sealed conductive splices and terminations brought up at accessible access points or test stations, and proved by continuity test at closeout.
TRIR: Total Recordable Incident Rate. OSHA-recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers per year — recordables times 200,000 divided by hours worked. The headline contractor safety benchmark on most prequalification packages.
Turn-Up: Bringing a completed link or subscriber into service — final testing against the loss budget, activation, and verification that the circuit performs to specification — with the test results delivered as part of the closeout package.

V

Vacuum Excavation: Removing soil with pressurized air or water and a vacuum unit, exposing a buried facility without the strike risk of mechanical digging. Also called hydro or air excavation. Pressure, water temperature, and nozzle standoff are held to the facility owner's spec. An over-pressured wand will still cut a jacket.
Vault: A below-grade enclosure large enough for a technician to enter and work in, used for splicing, slack storage, and cable access on underground routes. Man-entry vaults are generally permit-required confined spaces, requiring atmospheric testing, ventilation, and an attendant before entry.

#

811: The national One Call number in the United States. Excavators submit a ticket before digging and wait the statutory notice period — generally two to three business days, set by state law — so member facility owners can locate and mark. Tickets expire and must be renewed; privately owned lines are not covered.

Fiber & Telecom Glossary

A

B

C

D

E

F

H

I

J

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

#

Ready to build?