Fiber optic jumper cables are used to interconnect transmission equipment to the fiber optic patch panel. Simplex cables are usually used but in some application duplex fiber optic cables are suitable. Jumper fiber optic cables have special requirement of cut off wavelength which is generally lower than the cable cut off wavelength.

Jumper cable cut-off wavelength is measured on jumper cables in two different configurations: The first one is on 2 meters length of the fiber optic jumper cable, with one loop of 76mm radius. Some specification requires smaller or bigger mandrel diameter. The second method is to measure on split mandrel with the rest of the jumper cable kept essentially straight.

To avoid modal noise and dispersion penalties, the cut-off wavelength λcc of the shortest cable length including repair lengths if applicable shall be less than the lowest anticipated system wavelength, λs
λcc < λs
This will ensure that each individual cable section is sufficiently single mode. Any joint that is not perfect will create some higher order (denoted by LP11) mode power and single mode fibres typically support this mode for a short distance. Short distance means only a few meters, which depend on the deployment conditions. A minimum distance is specified between joints in order to give the fiber sufficient distance to attenuate the LP11 mode before it reaches the next joint. If inequality is satisfied in the shortest cable section, it will be automatically satisfied in all longer cable sections, and single‑mode system operation will occur regardless of the elementary section length.

To estimate bend sensitivity of an optical fiber, fibre cut-off wavelength and mode field diameter are used in combination. Larger fibre cut-off and a smaller mode field diameter result in a more bend resistant fiber. This inversely proportional relation explains why it is often desirable to specify higher values of cut-off wavelength λc, even if the upper limit of this parameter exceeds the operating wavelength.The smaller the bend we make while testing, the smaller will be the cut-off wavelength result we get. This explains why the cut-off wavelength of cabled fiber (known as cable cut-off wavelength) is less than the cut-off wavelength of optical fiber (fiber cut-off wavelength). Actual optical fiber cable installation techniques and cable designs will ensure a cable cut-off wavelength below the operating wavelength.

Customers ask cable cut-off wavelength. Why? This is due to the fact that specification of cable cut-off wavelength, λcc is a direct way of ensuring single‑mode cable operation. This is the reason for specifying cable cut-off wavelength is preferred to specifying fibre cut-off wavelength, λcf. However, when circumstances do not readily permit the specification of λcc as in single-fibre cable such as pigtails, jumpers or cables to be deployed in a significantly different manner than in the λcc RTM then specifying an upper limit for λcj or λcf is appropriate.