tap

The term tap is used whenever a component or a cable is tapped in order to dissipate a voltage or a signal via it. A tap is a fixed tapping, in contrast to a slider, a sliding sliding contact.

1. InCATV technology, a tap is a component used to create taps on coaxial cables.
2. In baseband Ethernet or IEEE 802.3, tap refers to the component used to connect a transceiver to the coaxial cable.
3. In broadband systems, a passive device that takes a portion of the signal power from the cable branch and passes it to the output line is called a tap. Here it forms the input/output to/from the network.
4. For resistors, a tap is a fixed tap that represents a specific resistance value. A resistor can contain several taps. The taps are always located between the two fixed end points of the resistors and act like a voltage divider.