In a

communications network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messa ...

, a drop is the portion of a device directly connected to the internal station facilities, such as toward a

telephone switchboard A telephone switchboard was a device used to connect circuits of telephones to establish telephone calls between users or other switchboards, throughout the 20th century. The switchboard was an essential component of a manual telephone exchange, ...

, toward a switching center, or toward a

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It interconnects telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital syst ...

. A drop can also be a wire or cable from a pole or cable terminus to a building, in which case it may be referred to as a downlead. These cables may be reinforced to withstand the tension (due to gravity and weather) of an aerial drop (i.e., hanging in air), as in "messenger" type

RG-6 RG-6/U is a common type of coaxial cable used in a wide variety of residential and commercial applications. An RG-6/U coaxial cable has a characteristic impedance of 75 ohms. The term, ''RG-6'', is generic and is applied to a wide variety of ...

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ) is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric ( insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a p ...

, which is reinforced with a steel

messenger wire An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

along its length.

Sources

Federal Standard 1037C Federal Standard 1037C, titled Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, is a United States Federal Standard issued by the General Services Administration pursuant to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, a ...

, in support of

MIL-STD-188 MIL-STD-188 is a series of U.S. military standards relating to telecommunications. Purpose Faced with "past technical deficiencies in telecommunications systems and equipment and software…that were traced to basic inadequacies in the applicat ...

External links

* Drop Wire Information https://web.archive.org/web/20140419020353/http://www.dropwire.co.uk/ Telecommunications equipment {{Telecomm-stub