Testing a fiber optic transceiver is a complicated job, but it is an indispensable step to ensure its performance. Basic eye-mask test is an effective way to test a transmitter and is still widely used today.

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | How to Test a Fiber Optic Transceiver?
When optical transceiver was first deployed, verifying the performance of it was straightforward.
The entire network was installed and owned by a single company, and if the system worked,
extensive testing of the subcomponents was unnecessary. Today, however, most optical networks
use components that may come from a variety of suppliers. Therefore, to test the compatibility and
interoperability of each fiber optic transceiver becomes particularly important. How to test a fiber
optic transceiver? This article may give you the answer.
As we all know, basically, a fiber optical transceiver consists of a transmitter and a receiver. When a
transmitter through a fiber to connect with a receiver but the system doesn’t achieve your desired
bit-error-ratio (BER), is the transmitter at fault? Or, is it the receiver? Perhaps both are faulty. A
low-quality transmitter can compensate for by a low-quality receiver (and vice versa). Thus,
specifications should guarantee that any receiver will interoperate with a worst-case transmitter,
and any transmitter will provide a signal with sufficient quality such that it will interoperate with a
worst-case receiver.
Precisely defining worst case is often a complicated task. If a receiver needs a minimum level of
power to achieve the system BER target, then that level will dictate the minimum allowed output
power of the transmitter. If the receiver can only tolerate a certain level of jitter, this will be used to
define the maximum acceptable jitter from the transmitter. In general, there are four basic steps in
testing an optical transceiver, as shown in the following picture, which mainly includes the
transmitter testing and receiver testing.
How to Test a Fiber
Optic Transceiver?

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | How to Test a Fiber Optic Transceiver?
Transmitter Testing
Transmitter parameters may include wavelength and shape of the output waveform while the
receiver may specify tolerance to jitter and bandwidth. There are two steps to test a transmitter:
1. The input signal used to test the transmitter must be
good enough. Measurements of jitter and an eye
mask test must be performed to confirm the quality
using electrical measurements. An eye mask test is
the common method to view the transmitter
waveform and provides a wealth of information
about overall transmitter performance.
2. The optical output of the transmitter must be tested
using several optical quality metrics such as a mask
test, OMA (optical modulation amplitude), and
Extinction Ratio.
Receiver Testing
To test a receiver, there are also two steps:
3. Unlike testing the transmitter, where one must
ensure that the input signal is of good enough
quality, testing the receiver involves sending in a
signal that is of poor enough quality. To do this, a
stressed eye representing the worst case signal shall

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | How to Test a Fiber Optic Transceiver?
be created. This is an optical signal, and must be calibrated using jitter and optical power
measurements.
4. Finally, testing the electrical output of the receiver must be performed. Three basic categories
of tests must be performed:
 A mask test, which ensures a large enough eye opening. The mask test is usually accompanied
by a BER (bit error ratio) depth.
 Jitter budget test, which tests for the amount of
certain types of jitter.
 Jitter tracking and tolerance, which tests the ability of
the internal clock recovery circuit to track jitter within
its loop bandwidth.
In summary, testing a fiber optic transceiver is a complicated job, but it is an indispensable step to
ensure its performance. Basic eye-mask test is an effective way to test a transmitter and is still
widely used today. To test a receiver seems more complex and requires more testing methods.
Fiberstore provides all kinds of transceivers, which can be compatible with many brands, such as
Cisco, HP, IBM, Arista, Brocade, DELL, Juniper etc. In Fiberstore, each fiber optic transceiver has
been tested to ensure our customers to receive the optics with superior quality. For more
information about the transceivers or compatible performance test, please visit www.fs.com or
contact us over sales@fs.com.

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Fiberstore (FS.COM) | How to Test a Fiber Optic Transceiver?
Contact Us
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Tel: +86 (755) 8300 3611
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Email: sales@fs.com
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W1B 3HH, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 2081441980
Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or
implied, concerning any equipment, equipment features, or service offered or to be offered by Fiberstore.
Fiberstore reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no
responsibility for its use. This information document describes features that may not be currently available.
Contact a Fiberstore sales team for information on feature and product availability.
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