Abstract:
A method of approximating the bit error rate (BER) contribution to a data symbol stream of a first channel by additionally passing the stream through a second channel of controllable noise figure. The bit outputs of the two channels are sampled, compared, and a record is made of the number of times the sampled data (a one or zero) of the first channel differs from the data of the second channel. This number is a bounded multiple of the BER contribution of the first channel. A protocol independent parameter termed a transmission safety factor is defined to concisely and quantitatively represent symbol degradation. The method is applied in error detection in data transparent transmission systems, which can not benefit from techniques used in non-transparent systems such as parity violation, CRC, or code violation detection.

Description:
[0001]    This is a non-provisional application based on provisional application Ser. No. 60/192,137 filed Mar. 23, 2000, and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/442,878 filed Nov. 18, 1999. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates generally to transmission of digital data, and more particularly to a method of evaluating a signal that is carrying digital data, in order to estimate the data transmission accuracy of this signal.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Prior Art  
           [0005]    Digital data transmission is a well-known and ubiquitous component of existing communication techniques. In the following text, the term “digital data transmission” will apply to the transmission of binary digital data, though such use does not exclude situations where the radix of transmitted numerals is greater than two. Following common usage in technical literature, the contraction “bit” will stand for “binary digit”. Again, following common usage in the data communications field, the term “data symbol” will be used to stand for a pre-defined physical representation assigned to a given data bit such that data transmission can be physically executed through the communication channel. The physical form of the data symbol depends on the modulation technique employed, and can take the form of a voltage, current, optical intensity, or some other dimensioned physical parameter. In order to effect the transmission of multiple digital data bits, it is common to restrict each data symbol to ideally occupy a finite interval of time termed as a “bit period”. A succession of data symbols injected into the communication channel by a suitable transmission mechanism constitutes the transmission of multiple data bits. It is common in the digital communications field to employ a nominally periodic “transmitter clock signal” in order to delineate the finite intervals of time to be occupied by each data symbol. The receiver of a digital data transmission link first receives, or extracts, the physical data symbols out of the communication channel. It is well-known that the physical characteristics of a channel can attenuate and distort the transmitted data symbols. Thus, the received data symbols are in general a degraded version of the corresponding transmitted data symbols. The receiver performs a “decision” operation whereby each received data symbol is mapped back to its corresponding data bit. The timing of the decision process is coordinated by a “receiver clock signal”, often extracted from the incoming data symbols themselves by a well-known procedure known as “clock recovery”. A common embodiment of the decision operation in the case of voltage symbols is to employ a clocked regenerative comparator circuit, sometimes referred to as a “decision circuit” or “flip-flop”. Ideally, the decision operation occurs instantaneously at the instants of time specified by the receiver clock signal. The instantaneous decision process will be referred to as “sampling” of the data symbols.  
           [0006]    An important step in achieving quality digital data transmission is detecting situations when the transmission is inaccurate. The inaccuracy of a transmission link is manifested in the form of bit errors, i.e., a transmitted bit being incorrectly identified at the receiver (including the catastrophic situation when none of the transmitted bits are properly identified at the receiver). Typical causes of bit errors in a digital data transmission link include the following:  
           [0007]    1. Random additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) distorts the amplitude of the data symbols and can cause independent bit errors when the signal-to-noise ratio becomes small.  
           [0008]    2. Deterministic symbol degradations such as intersymbol interference (ISI), in conjunction with AWGN, can cause data pattern-dependent bit errors.  
           [0009]    3. Timing jitter in the receiver clock signal can cause both independent as well as pattern-dependent bit errors.  
           [0010]    The degradations described above can be aggravated by factors such as component aging, fluctuations in ambient operating conditions existing in the data transmission link, and catastrophic device degradation.  
           [0011]    The primary performance metric for characterizing the occurrence of bit errors is the bit error rate (BER) of a link, defined as the relative frequency of bit errors over a given time interval for a given sequence of data bits. The maximum acceptable bit error rate (BER) of a digital data transmission link is usually a number much smaller than unity, such as 10 −12 . The BER measurement is typically defined for a test bit pattern such as a pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) of a particular periodicity. A BER of 10 −12  means that on average, 1 bit error occurs for every 1 trillion consecutive data bits. It is important to note that depending on the statistics of the failure mechanism, there could be many intervals of 1 trillion bits where no errors occur, while many other such intervals contain more than one bit error. Hence, along with the BER, other metrics such as Error Free Seconds (EFS) and Severely Errored Seconds (SES) are employed to characterize a link.  
           [0012]    Real-time performance monitoring of communication links allows incipient transmission link failures to be identified prior to their occurrence, and a timely responsive or corrective action instituted. Transmission techniques that are not transparent to the data bits typically employ a parity check or cyclic redundancy check (CRC) built into the transmission frame. For example, the widely employed Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) standard utilizes the Bit Interleaved Parity (BIP) technique. The parity violation rate at the receiver is an accurate measure of the BER over a wide range of BER values. It is also possible to monitor the BER by keeping track of violations of the line coding algorithm employed for symbol transmission.  
           [0013]    In transmission systems known as data transparent links, the data bits are not accessed with reference to a particular transmission protocol, which precludes the use of parity violation, CRC, or code violation techniques. In transmissions of this type, the sequence of bits does not contain any standard, repeated sequences that can be relied on to evaluate the accuracy of transmission. In such systems, a method known as pseudo error monitoring can be used. In one such method an incoming stream of data symbols is sampled using at least two different methods, and the results are compared. If they agree for a particular data bit, that bit is assumed accurately received; if they disagree, the reception is assumed to be an error. An error rate calculated according to this method is termed a pseudo error rate (PER).  
           [0014]    A number of prior art patents have addressed the above problem by generating one or more additional samplings of the incoming bit stream to compare with the main signal path data. U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,550 describes sampling each data bit at three separate instants of time during each bit period, once in the center for the main signal path data, and once on each side of center, i.e. once before and once after the center of the time period of the data bit. The method combines the two off-center samplings to generate data to compare with the main signal data. If the two agree, the bit is considered accurate; if they do not agree, it is considered a pseudo error, i.e., it is not known in fact that the main signal path data indication is in error, but it is highly questionable. This patent uses the data to determine a bit error rate (BER). This patent argues that a single, independent data point taken off-center yields an inaccurate result due to the slope of the bit pulse curve, and proposes that the aggregation/combination of the two samplings results in a pseudo error count that is much less sensitive to the precise offset of the samplings from the center. While U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,550 correctly identifies the sensitivity of the pseudo error rate to the precise offset in the timing instant, it fails to recognize that bit error rate curves (such as FIG. 2 of the patent) are usually plotted on a semi-logarithmic scale, i.e. X-axis linear, but Y-axis logarithmic. Thus, the Curve  3  of FIG. 2 in the patent will not possess the degree of “significantly lesser dependence on shifts of the scanning moment” as claimed. Further, in FIG. 2 of the patent, the two pseudo error rate curves corresponding to sampling instants B and C of FIG. 1 are ambiguously and questionably juxtaposed on the same X-axis. It is readily evident that the pseudo error rate curves will actually exhibit a variation with sampling instant as shown in FIG. 1 of the present disclosure. If in fact FIG. 2 of the patent exhibits the two curves offset in some manner along the X-axis, then the “combination” curve combines data from different portions of the bit period. This procedure is questionable since, in general, the received data symbols need not be symmetric about a vertical line passing through the center of the bit period. It should be also noted that the data bits produced by sampling the main signal path are used as the reference for judging the veracity of the bits generated by off-center sampling. Hence, any posited relationship between the pseudo error rate and the inherent BER of the main signal path is insubstantial by definition. However, approximate relationships can be obtained in certain circumstances, which are described elsewhere in the present application.  
           [0015]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,147 describes a method for counting the number of times a signal invades predetermined areas on a digital display, giving an indication of a pseudo error rate. This method has the disadvantage of being very complex to implement. U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,959 defines a rectangular region in what is known as an “eye diagram.” An eye diagram is an amplitude vs time display of the incoming data signal, with both positive and negative signals superimposed to give an appearance of an eye. Ideally, this pattern would be rectangular, but due to dispersion and losses in signal transmission it is degraded, causing a reduced amplitude and rounded corners. According to the method, a rectangle inside the eye diagram is defined, and a count is made of the number of times the signal invades the rectangle. This count is used as an indication of the error rate. Again, this technique is complex to implement, requiring a large sampling rate on the principle of a real-time oscilloscope.  
           [0016]    In view of the above described prior art methods, it is apparent that there is a need for a more meaningful and simple method of detecting a faulty signal.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0017]    It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of estimating the accuracy of transmission in a data transparent digital data communication link.  
           [0018]    It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of comparing information derived from an incoming data symbol stream with a pre-defined reference curve in order to determine the quality of the received data symbols with reference to the intended function of the symbol stream viz; performing accurate data transmission.  
           [0019]    Briefly, a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a method wherein each symbol in an incoming data symbol stream is sampled at the center of each bit period to create a main line data bit stream, and concurrently sampled at a time instant displaced from the center of each bit period to create a second line data bit stream. The amount of time displacement is measured from the center of each bit period, and can vary from a maximum of one half bit period with positive sign to a minimum of one half bit period with negative sign. For measurement purposes, the user can define a set of time displacement values that lie within the defined interval. During each bit period, the digital value of the second line data stream is compared with the digital value for the corresponding bit period in the main line. If the main line and second line digital values are the same, no error is indicated. If they are different, i.e. if, for example, the main line is bit “1” and the second line is bit zero, an error called a pseudo error is entered on a counter. The number of errors counted per number of bits or time is indicated as a pseudo error rate for each point of time displacement in the user-defined set. A pseudo error rate reference curve is independently, and previously determined and stored in a controller that indicates maximum allowable pseudo error rate data as a function of the time displacement from the center of the bit period. The values of the calculated pseudo error rate are compared with the corresponding points on the reference curve, and the deviation from the reference curve is quantified by a newly defined quantity termed a “transmission safety factor”. If this factor is below a predetermined level, an alarm/notice is activated to indicate degraded performance. If the calculated pseudo error rate values are higher than the corresponding ordinates of the reference curve, the safety factor takes on a reduced value, thereby indicating a degraded system performance. Subsequently, an alarm signal is output to indicate the degraded system condition, as well as for use in correcting the data transmission system.  
           [0020]    A further embodiment of the present invention includes a method of approximating the bit error rate (BER) contribution to a data symbol stream of a first channel by additionally passing the stream through a second channel of similar noise figure. The bit outputs of the two channels are sampled, compared, and a record is made of the number of times the sampled data (a one or zero) of the first channel differs from the data of the second channel. This number is approximately twice the BER contribution of the first channel.  
           [0021]    An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a more useful quantitative indication of the accuracy of data transmission in data transparent links than is existing in the prior art.  
           [0022]    A further advantage of the present invention is that it can be implemented with relatively low cost, uncomplicated circuitry. 
       
    
    
     IN THE DRAWING  
       [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating a variation in PER due to a sampling instant variation;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the method of the present invention;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 3 illustrates the forms of the data signals;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 4 shows a data signal with superimposed noise level;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5 illustrates the reference pseudo error rate curve;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 6 is a preferred circuit for implementation of the method of the present invention;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 7 is a graph of measured data at 622.08 Mbps showing PER variations with phase;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 8 is a graph of measured data at 622.08 Mbps safety factor versus time;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 9 a  is a graph of measured data showing PER versus phase offset with and without jitter at 622.08 Mbps;  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 9 b  is an oscilloscope picture showing the jittered transmitter signal at 622.08 Mbps;  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 10 a  is a graph of measured data showing PER versus phase offset with and without jitter at 1.0625 Gbps;  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 10 b  is an oscilloscope picture showing the jittered transmitter signal at 1.0625 Gbps;  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 11 is an expanded block diagram of a portion of FIG. 6;  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 12 a  is a graph of measured BER versus data amplitude comparing the results of a standard BER tester with the present invention; and  
         [0037]    [0037]FIG. 12 b  is a graph of measured data showing safety factor versus data amplitude, for the same experiment as in FIG. 12 a.   
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0038]    The preferred embodiment of the method of the present invention is illustrated in the flow chart of FIG. 2.  
         [0039]    The objective of the invention is to analyze an incoming data symbol stream, representing a series of digital “1”s and zeros, for the purpose of determining if the incoming signal is an accurate representation of the original data bit/symbol stream. According to the method of the present invention, a series of M symbols in an incoming data symbol stream is selected. A standard clock recovery circuit makes a determination of the symbol periodicity, and a counter of whole number values is initialized to zero. Each of the M symbols is sampled at the center of the corresponding bit period using a decision circuit to determine a center value indicating a digital “1” or “0” for that symbol. Concurrently, using another decision circuit, each symbol is also sampled at a time instant displaced from the center of the corresponding bit period. The value of this time displacement is one of a set of user defined values lying in the interval from one half bit period with negative sign to one half bit period with positive sign. During the measurement procedure on each series of M data symbols, a single time displacement value is chosen, in serial order, from the user defined set and this value is held constant for that series of M data symbols. If the binary outputs from the two decision circuits for a given bit period disagree, then a quantity termed a pseudo error is logged by incrementing the value of the counter by unity. The number of accumulated, counted errors over the M bits, for the selected time displacement point, is an indication of the pseudo error rate (PER) for that point. A PER is then acquired for a second time delay point by performing the above described operation for another M symbols. This is repeated until a PER has been determined for each delay point. The plurality of PERs corresponding to the plurality of time displacement points defines a PER curve. The method compares the PER curve, or points on the PER curve, to a corresponding reference PER curve, or points on the reference PER curve, and_calculates a novel quantity termed a “transmission safety factor”. If one or more of the points on the PER curve exceeds the reference PER curve, the safety factor takes on a decreased value, indicative of a degraded transmission signal. If the calculated transmission safety factor decays to a predetermined unacceptable level, an output/alarm is provided for signaling an abnormal condition as well as for the purpose of initiating corrective action.  
         [0040]    Referring now to FIG. 2, the first step  10  in the method is to set ( 10 ) and store ( 12 ) a value M of the number of symbols to be sampled for each delay point, a quantity of N time displacement points, a set of selected maximum allowable degraded reference PER curve data, and a minimum allowable safety factor. The reference PER curve data consists of a PER value for each time displacement point of the set of time delay points defined. The amount of error indicated by the curve is not critical, and within limits is arbitrary. If the reference PER values are too small, however, the system will signal a degraded condition even for minor, negligible fluctuations in system performance. If the reference PER values are set too large, the measurement will not be very sensitive to transmission system degradations. The minimum acceptable value for the transmission safety factor is also within limits arbitrary in the same way as the PER reference. As will become clear in the following descriptions, the factor can have a positive or negative value, and a reasonable minimum value could be zero. The reference PER curve data, the minimum safety factor, the value M, and the time delay point data are all stored in a computer/microcontroller memory ( 12 ). The method proceeds with the setting of a delay point ( 14 ), and a symbol/bit is sampled, at the bit center, and at the delay point ( 16 ). The digital value at the bit center is then compared with the value at the selected delay point ( 18 ). If they are different, it is assumed that the data is inaccurate and a PER counter is incremented ( 20 ). The method then proceeds to sample the next symbol if the last symbol was not the M th  bit, i.e. the last in the selected quantity of the series of M to be sampled. This is indicated by block  22  and the decision  24 . If the bit center value and delay point value are the same  26 , the counter is not incremented, and if the bit is not the M th  bit ( 22 ,  24 ), the method proceeds to sample the next symbol/bit as indicated by the return line  28  going back to step  16 . If the last bit is the M th  bit  30 , the pseudo error rate for the selected delay point is calculated ( 32 ) and stored, using the errors indicated by the counter. If the last delay point sampled is not the last in the series of selected delay points ( 34 ,  36 ), the next delay is set ( 14 ) and steps  16 - 34  are repeated until all of the delay points are evaluated as indicated at  36 . The transmission safety factor is then calculated ( 38 ) using the stored PER values for each delay point, the reference PER points, and the number of delay points. This calculation will be fully described in the following text of the specification.  
         [0041]    The calculated safety factor is then compared with the stored minimum safety factor value ( 38 ). If the calculated safety factor is less than the minimum acceptable value ( 40 ), a notice is given or an alarm is activated ( 42 ).  
         [0042]    If the safety factor is greater than the minimum ( 46 ), the system is reset ( 48 ). This involves resetting the PER counter to zero, resetting the symbol count to zero, and resetting the delay to the beginning of the selected series of delays. The system then proceeds to repeat the entire set of steps in FIG. 2 as indicated by line  50 .  
         [0043]    As a stream of data symbols is received, the method requires sampling M consecutive symbols for each time delay/displacement point. According to the preferred embodiment, the pseudo error rate is measured over M consecutive data bits at each value of the plurality of time displacement points to determine a PER curve of the incoming data stream. In this method the PER measurement is concurrent with the data bit stream. The PER_measurement for each time displacement point will last for a time equal to at least M bit periods. Further, the time displacement points are chosen from the user-defined set in serial order. Thus, for random digital data, the method employs different sequences of M consecutive data symbols for the PER measurement at each time displacement point. Owing to a dependence of the received data symbol waveforms on the specific data pattern occurring during the time interval of PER measurement, statistical fluctuations in the measured PER values are likely. The value of M is to be chosen large enough such that these statistical fluctuations are minimized, while keeping the PER measurement time small enough to be meaningful for system restitution in the event of a perceived system degradation. Almost all data transmission protocols with a bit rate in excess of 100 Megabits per second use either transmission data scrambling algorithms or line encoding schemes. Thus, data pattern dependencies become reduced, which will in turn decrease statistical fluctuations in the measured PER values, and hence permit the use of smaller values of M. Also note that if a zero pseudo error count is recorded during a measurement interval covering M consecutive data symbols, it cannot be concluded that the pseudo error rate is zero. It is statistically more meaningful to conclude that the PER is less than the reciprocal of M. It should be noted again at this point that the method of the present invention is data transparent, and hence does not differentiate between the various types of bits that make up a data frame. For example, no distinction is made between header bits, CRC bits, or line coding bits that fill up inter-frame gaps. The pseudo error rate is measured over a statistically larger sample size when compared to CRC checks that are performed only over data frames and not over inter-frame gaps. It follows from the above discussion that the present invention will detect a signal degradation ahead of protocol dependent error monitoring mechanisms.  
         [0044]    The “transmission safety factor” denoted by S is defined as follows: let the number of selected delay points, i.e. elements in the time displacement set be the natural number N. Let i be a natural number less than or equal to N, and let the i th  element of the time displacement set be denoted as D i . Let the corresponding reference PER value be denoted by R i , and the corresponding calculated PER value based on the counter reading be P i . The transmission safety factor S is defined by means of the formula:  
               S   =       10   N            ∑     i   =   1     N            log   10          (       R   i       P   1       )                  
          where        :               (   1   )                 P   i     =       1   M            ∑     j   =   1     M          E   ij                 (   2   )                               
 
         [0045]    with E ij  being the error indication for the j th  symbol of M consecutive symbols at the i th  delay point. E ij  is either “0” or “1”, as explained above, i.e. if the bit center value does not equal the value at the delay point, the counter is incremented one unit, i.e. E ij =1. R i  is the predetermined reference PER for the i th  delay point.  
         [0046]    The method will now be explained in further detail in reference to FIGS.  3 - 6 . FIG. 3 illustrates the example of non return to zero (NRZ) symbols for digital “1”s  52  and  54  and digital zeros  56  and  58  as generated by an ideal transmitter. Curve portions  60  and  62  represent a typical degradation of the corresponding symbols  52  and  54  upon arrival at a system receiver following transmission through a communication channel. The signal level is reduced due to losses, and the shape is rounded due to dispersive transmission media factors. Curve portions  64  and  66  similarly represent a degraded form of zero bits  56  and  58 . These symbol degradations may be sensitive to the specific series of data bits being transmitted.  
         [0047]    According to the method of the present invention, the received data symbol stream is sampled using a decision circuit, the sampling occurring at the center  68  of each bit period, the accuracy of position determined in part by the quality of the data transmission itself and the quality of the clock recovery process. The resulting series of “1”s and zeros at the output of the decision circuit will be noted as the main line. Using a separate decision circuit, each symbol of the incoming data symbol stream, or a faithful real time copy thereof, is sampled at a time instant displaced from the center of the bit period, such as indicated by lines  70 , as described previously. The binary output of the second decision circuit will be termed the second line. Each second line data bit is compared with the a corresponding main line bit. If the second line and main line agree (both “1”s or both zeros), no error is counted. If they disagree, an error (pseudo error) is recorded for that point by means of a counter, as described previously.  
         [0048]    Referring to FIG. 4, the “1” bit  62  of FIG. 3 is shown distorted with noise  72 . Consider the situation where a threshold level for determining a “1” bit is the level of line  74 . In a real situation, the number of times the random noise laden curve is likely to cross the threshold  74  will increase as the sampling instant retreats from the center  68 . Because of this, a measured pseudo error rate will also naturally increase as the sampling instant retreats from the center  68 . representative plot of the PER as a function of displacement in time from the center is illustrated as curve  76  in FIG. 5. The bit pulse  54  is overlaid as a reference for time, as is the center line  68 .  
         [0049]    According to the method of the present invention, a maximum allowable PER reference curve is selected. This curve is represented as curve  78  in FIG. 5. Data defining curve  78  is stored for reference as described above. The safety factor referred to above is positive for data points on the curve  76  lying below the reference  78 , and represents acceptable data. Data points lying above the reference  78 , such as on curve  80 , represent unacceptable data and a negative safety factor.  
         [0050]    The above described method of the present invention is an improvement over prior art methods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,550 combines the two PER versus time displacement curves for positive and negative values of time displacement respectively in order to generate a composite bit error rate curve which is claimed to have a less sensitive dependence on the sampling instant as it is varied across the bit period. In contrast, the method of the present invention advantageously utilizes the sensitive dependence of the PER on the time displacement, a characteristic identified as undesirable in U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,550, in order to detect degradations in the received symbols. The newly defined transmission safety factor, defined by equation (1) above, abstracts the information in the PER versus time displacement curve into a single number that can be used as a metric for the measurement of data transmission accuracy. Further, unlike U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,550, the present method does not measure the bit error rate of the main line data stream. The present method detects degradations in the received data symbols, as evidenced by the measured PER versus time displacement curve (such as curves  76  or  80  in FIG. 5), and the subsidiary parameter of transmission safety factor.  
         [0051]    In U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,959 the signal is rejected if it falls within a rectangular area in the eye defined by the incoming signal. The rectangular area is equivalent to a flat reference, which can reject acceptable signals.  
         [0052]    The method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,147 depends on evaluating each cell in a display area within a defined reference eye area for invasion of the data signal. This method differs from the present invention which calculates the PER for a plurality of time displacement points and gives notice if the PER exceeds that of a pre-defined reference, the extent of the excess being quantified by the newly defined transmission safety factor. The difference between U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,147 and the present invention is very significant. Implementation of the device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,147 is complicated, whereas an implementation of the present invention is relatively simple, as will be described in reference to FIG. 6 of the drawing.  
         [0053]    A circuit  82  for implementing the method of the present invention as described in reference to FIG. 2 is shown in detail in FIG. 6. The maximum allowable reference PER versus time displacement curve data is determined as described in reference to FIG. 2, and is stored in the controller  84  of FIG. 6. The circuit of FIG. 6 calculates an actual PER versus time displacement curve of a data symbol stream received on line  86 , and communicates the resulting calculated/counted PER versus time displacement data to the controller via line  88 . The controller then compares it with the stored reference curve. The controller calculates the transmission safety factor defined earlier. If the actual safety factor is smaller than a previously defined reference value, also stored in the controller, the controller outputs a notice/alarm on line  90 . The notice on line  90  can be acted upon by a user directly, or the alarm signal output on line  90  can be sent back to the transmitter. A system  92  for such a process will be understood by those skilled in the art and need not be described herein. This system, for example, could be the internet, or e-mail, etc., but preferably the same system that carried the incoming signal on line  86 . In turn, the transmitter can institute appropriate remedial or restitutive action in order to improve the data transmission accuracy.  
         [0054]    The circuit  82  determines the PER as follows. The incoming data symbol stream on line  86  is preferably amplified by amplifier  94 , and then is connected to both a clock data recovery (CDR) circuit  96  and a decision circuit  98 . The CDR  96  is a standard device such as a MAXIM model MAX3875. The function of the CDR is to recover a clock signal from the data symbol stream and to sample the incoming symbols at the center of each data bit transmission period, and output at 100 a clean binary data signal. For example, FIG. 3 exemplifies a clean data signal with digital “1”s  52  and  54  and zeros  56  and  58 . The bit period centers are noted as items  68 . The CDR also outputs a clock pulse at  102  indicative of the sampling instants. The decision circuit  98  is preferably identical to that employed in the CDR and samples the incoming signal at  104  when a clock pulse is input at  106 . The method and apparatus of the present invention also includes decision circuits in the CDR  96  and circuit  98  that are different. If the signal at  104  is above a threshold level, an output at  108  is applied indicative of a digital “1”. If the signal is below that level, the output at  108  is indicative of a digital zero. The pulse at  106  is delayed in time with respect to the clock pulse at  102  by a programmable delay circuit  110 . An additional programmable delay  112  is placed in-line with the output  100  of the CDR  96 . Delay circuit  112  is set by controller  84  to cause the signals on lines  114  and  108  to arrive at the XOR gate  116  at the same time with the respective pulse edges coincident regardless of the time of sampling by the decision circuit  98  relative to the time of sampling by the CDR  96 . The XOR gate  116  compares the inputs on  114  and  108 . If these inputs are the same (both digital “1”s or both zeros), no output at  118  is sent. If the inputs are different, an output appears at  118  which indicates a pseudo error and increments the counter  120 .  
         [0055]    The circuit of FIG. 6 is presented as a preferred embodiment. Variations of this circuit for performing the same functions will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and these variations are to be included in the spirit at the present invention. For example, the programmable delay circuit  110  could be incorporated in the structure containing the CDR  96 , etc.  
         [0056]    In operation, the controller  84  stores a program including data for a series of N delay offsets between the CDR  96  sampling time and the decision circuit  98  sampling time for the purpose of gathering data to construct the PER curve. A user defined reference safety factor is also stored in the controller, as well as the number of symbols M to be sampled in a series. The controller then sequentially sets the delay circuits  110  and  112  for the various delay points within the bit period. The XOR gate  116  compares each set of outputs at  108  and  114 , and if they are different, sends the resulting error signal to the counter  120 . The counter  120  stores the accumulated count for the M symbols evaluated at each delay point in a designated register. The operation of the counter proceeds by first resetting its count value to zero, and then enabling the counter operation for a duration of M bit periods for each of the N delay points as discussed previously. The PER for each delay is the sum of the errors counted for the M symbols measured at that delay. For each point/delay, the controller  84  compares the PER of the counter with the PER reference stored in the controller, and the transmission safety factor S is calculated as described earlier. If the measured safety factor is less than the reference safety factor value stored in the controller, the controller outputs a signal at 90, i.e. an alarm which can be used in a number of ways to notify a user that the data being received may be in error. A preferred embodiment includes the controller sending a signal back through the network  92  to the transmitter.  
         [0057]    Measurement data performed using a circuit incorporating the features of FIG. 6 are shown in FIGS.  7 - 10 . The circuit of FIG. 6 was constructed using the following components. The amplifier  94  was a Stanford Micro Devices SGA6389, the CDR  96  was a Philips Semiconductor OQ2541, the programmable delays  110  and  112  each were a Motorola ECL MC100E195, the decision circuit  98  was a Lucent Microelectronics LG1602, the XOR gate  116  was a Motorola ECL MC100EL07, the counter  120  was three units of a Motorola ECL MC100E137, and the controller  84  was an OnTrak Control Systems ADR1000. Additional level translation circuitry (Motorola MC100H600 and MC100H601) were employed to convert TTL logic level control signals to ECL logic levels and vice versa. The various steps of operation shown in FIG. 2 were carried out by means of a software program developed in the National Instruments LabVIEW environment.  
         [0058]    The incoming symbol stream applied at input  86  for the data of FIG. 7 had a data rate of 622.08 Mbps, corresponding to the SONET OC-12 level. The data pattern employed was an NRZ 2 7 -1 pseudorandom bit stream (PRBS). Symbol degradations were deliberately created by a controlled amount of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) by means of a NoiseCom NC6112 broadband noise generator. The dotted line  122  represents the reference curve, in this case chosen arbitrarily. Curves  124 ,  126  and  128  display data taken at three separate levels of symbol degradation. The data of FIG. 7 can be readily interpreted by referring to the description of FIG. 5. Similar results were obtained up to ANSI X3.230 Fibre Channel rates (1.0625 Gbps).  
         [0059]    [0059]FIG. 8 shows a measurement of safety factor as a function of time at 622.08 Mbps. Symbol degradations during this measurement were introduced by way of both AWGN as well as changes in data amplitude. It is evident that the safety factor is a good abstraction of the symbol quality, clearly reflecting changes in the S/N ratio. FIG. 8 shows repeatable resolution of 1 db steps in S/N ratio.  
         [0060]    Another important consideration in symbol quality is timing jitter. In these experiments, timing jitter was artificially introduced by means of a phase modulation impressed upon a clock signal input to a data pattern generator. FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate how the present technique is sensitive to all forms of symbol degradation, including timing jitter. Data is shown for a 622.08 Mbps (SONET OC-12) rate in FIG. 9, and a 1.0625 Gbps (Fibre Channel) rate in FIG. 10.  
         [0061]    The results of FIGS.  7 - 10  clearly demonstrate the operation of the present invention.  
         [0062]    [0062]FIG. 9( a ) is a plot of the PER versus phase offset for a measurement of 622.08 Mbps with timing jitter (curve  130 ) and without timing jitter (curve  132 ). A reference curve  134  is also included. FIG. 9( b ) is a tracing of an actual scope display of data while observing the effect of timing jitter at 622.08 Mbps.  
         [0063]    FIGS.  10 ( a ) and  10 ( b ) show results similar to FIGS.  9 ( a ) and  9 ( b ) for a symbol rate of 1.0625 Gbps.  
         [0064]    A further embodiment of the present invention will now be described wherein an approximate measurement of the BER of an input data stream can be made using circuitry similar to that of FIG. 6. This embodiment involves amplifiers in the CDR circuit  96  and Decision Circuit  98  of FIG. 6. This is illustrated in FIG. 11, showing the required details of the CDR circuit  96  and Decision Circuit  98 . The CDR circuit  96  includes a Decision Circuit  136 , a clock recovery circuit  138 , and an amplifier  140 . The Decision Circuit  98  includes an amplifier  142 , as well as a Decision Circuit  144 . The measurement approximates the BER of an incoming data symbol stream at  86 . The theory and operation will now be described in detail. Referring to FIG. 5, the minimum value, or floor of the PER curve typically occurs at the point where the copy channel is sampled at the same time delay as the original channel, i.e. for a zero sampling offset normally selected at the center of a data bit. The minimum value denoted as PERmin, is influenced by degradations in both the original channel, including the CDR  96 , and the copy channel, including the Decision Circuit  98 . Additional factors are listed above in the second paragraph of the Description of the Prior Art as items  1 ,  2  and  3 . In addition, the measurement statistics of the PERmin depend on the PER measurement time interval, as explained above in the discussion of sampling for each time delay/displacement point.  
         [0065]    Referring again to FIG. 11, the original stream is typically amplified inside the CDR  96  using amplifier A2 ( 140 ), and the copy stream is likewise amplified within the Decision Circuit using amplifier A3 ( 142 ). During this amplification process, additional degradations are introduced into the signal as discussed above. Focusing on the random additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) introduced as an excess noise by amplifiers A1, A2, and A3, it can be readily recognized that the excess AWGN due to A1, A2, and A3 will be mutually statistically uncorrolated. Due to this fact, and in addition to the fact that a noise pulse of sufficient magnitude to cause a bit error occurs infrequently relative to the bit rate, it is apparent that errors generated by noise in amplifier A2, will statistically not be cancelled by similar noise in amplifier A3, and as a result the circuit of FIG. 6 will statistically record all errors due to noise occurrences in A2 and A3. Since the noise in A2 is statistically the same as the noise in A3, though not instantaneously the same, the time average number of errors recorded due to noise in A2 will approximately equal the errors recorded due to the noise in A3.  
         [0066]    Of particular importance at this point is to recognize that if the noise introduced by the amplifier A2 is much greater than the noise in the symbol stream entering A2, then the BER of the data at the output of the CDR  100  is approximately one-half the PER recorded by the circuit of FIG. 6. The circuit of FIG. 6 as detailed in FIG. 11 then provides an approximate measurement of the BER of the data stream at  100 . Furthermore, if the sampling of the copy channel is done at the same time as the original channel, i.e. at a zero time delay, the noise introduced by amplifier A1 will not cause pseudo errors at the output of the XOR gate  116 .  
         [0067]    Consider the following three cases, the first of which corresponds to the above description. Define NF 1  and NF 2  as the noise figures of amplifiers A1 and A2 respectively, and G1 and G2 as the gains of amplifiers A1 and A2 respectively. Define PERmin as the measured PER with a zero time delay in the sampling in the original and copy channels. In the first case, if NF 2 /G1 is much larger that NF 1 , then the PERmin will be nearly twice the BER of the input signal to the receiver. In the second case, if NF 2 /G1 is comparable to NF 1 , then the PERmin will be zero to twice the BER of the input signal to the receiver. In the third case, if NF 2 /G1 is much less than NF 1 , then the PERmin will be much smaller than the BER of the input signal to the receiver.  
         [0068]    Note that other signal degradation mechanisms exist apart from the AWGN situation considered here. Furthermore, the amplifiers A2 and A3 are often of a saturating or limiting type which complicates the definition of the noise figure. Thus, it is difficult to mathematically quantify the stated approximations based on the standard error function formula for the BER in the presence of AWGN. It is more suitable to experimentally determine the range of validity of the approximations.  
         [0069]    As a further embodiment of the present invention, there exists a mechanism for estimating the BER of the input signal by means of the PERmin in cases  1  and  2  listed above. The amplifiers A2 and A3 can be deliberately designed to possess the required amount of excess noise such that the condition of Case  2  above is satisfied in order to obtain an approximate relationship between PERmin and the BER of the input signal. It is clear that deliberately increasing the excess noise due to amplifiers A2 and A3 (in order to satisfy the condition of Case  2 ) degrades the overall sensitivity of the link. According to the prior art such a situation is undesirable and therefore any benefit from such a technique is not obvious. The benefit of introducing excess noise described above according to the present invention will now be explained in further detail. Note that the primary goal of on-line performance monitoring is to quantify the communication performance of a link, with the bit error rate (BER) as the primary performance metric. For example, an alarm can go off when the link BER exceeds a pre-defined threshold. It is only of secondary importance to know the values of symbol parameters such as the receiver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Certainly, increasing the noise due to A2 and A3 reduces the link power budget, but this price buys the ability to perform protocol-independent on-line BER measurement.  
         [0070]    With the baseline sensitivity of the link being fixed primarily by the excess noise of A2 and A3, it is then possible to measure the BER caused by degradations in the link such as reduction in signal power, pulse rise and fall-time increases, timing jitter, or other symbol distortion. In a sense, the noise due to A2 and A3 represents the heavy load on the camel while the actual symbol degradation is the straw that breaks the poor animal&#39;s back. The present invention translates these straws into the only meaningful performance metric i.e., the BER.  
         [0071]    An analogy from the layman&#39;s experience may be helpful to understand the principle involved. It is common in the investigative world to interrogate multiple suspects independently, and then to compare their responses with each other. For example, there is the famous story of the professor and the four students. The students missed an exam and later claimed their car had a flat on the way back from a camping trip. They asked for a re-exam. The professor agreed. The exam contained a single, short question: “Which tire?”. If a single suspect is found to be “more reliable” than the others, that person can be used to verify the accuracy of the others. Likewise, in the present invention, it is possible to deliberately design the Original channel of FIG. 11 to be less reliable than the Copy. A simple way to achieve this is by attenuating the Original channel or by deliberately adding more noise to it. Even though data from the poorer path is thereby passed on to the end-user of the communication link, the “better path” is being retained internally for the purpose of providing a credible reference for a BER measurement. Obviously, there will be a range within which the Original can be degraded without substantially subtracting from the link power budget. Given the exponential variation of BER with signal-to-noise ratio, even a 1 dB SNR difference between the original and copy channels will typically suffice to provide an accurate BER measurement.  
         [0072]    The clock phase margin (CPM) of a link receiver is defined as the maximum allowable misalignment in time between the retiming clock and the data symbol stream (modulo 1 clock period) such that the BER remains below a pre-defined threshold value. Along with the CPM measurement, the rise and fall time of the analog signal can also be inferred. The present invention can be used to measure the CPM of a link. There are obvious connections between the CPM and timing jitter, and also pulse dispersion.  
         [0073]    A link power budget measurement can also be made. If a variable signal attenuator is introduced into the symbol path at the receiver input, it is possible to measure the “link power budget” of a channel at any point in transit. Specifically, a tap of the signal power can be used for on-line performance monitoring.  
         [0074]    As an additional feature, the on-line BER measurement as also the Transmission Safety Factor can be used to implement automatic on-line performance optimization by way of network feedback. Network feedback is illustrated in FIG. 6 by line  90  and network block  92 . The present invention thus serves as a sensor for such feedback mechanisms. A good example is power balancing in optical amplifier systems employed along with wavelength division multiplexed optical signals.  
         [0075]    Calibration of programmable delays can also be accomplished. Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, it is evident that the “zero” setting of programmable delay  110  should correspond to a sampling of the copy data symbols  104  in the so-called “center” of the eye diagram. Concurrently, programmable delay  112  must be “zeroed” such that the inputs to the XOR gate  116  are synchronized. In general, we can expect that the zeroing procedure should be carried out for each data bit-rate of interest. Furthermore, the delay settings may vary with ambient temperature, and also exhibit parameter variations across a manufacturing lot. Thus, a robust self-adjusting delay calibration procedure is desirable. Such calibration can be achieved by scanning through the two dimensional matrix of possible programmable delay values and choosing their optimal settings to correspond to a well-centered “bathtub” curve (FIG. 5) and smallest value for the Transmission Safety Factor.  
         [0076]    In the unit described earlier, it was not possible to modify the noise figure of the amplifiers within the CDR. However, by adjusting the AWGN level on the NoiseCom NC6112 noise generator, it was possible to obtain a situation where case  2  could be realized. FIG. 12 a  shows experimental data obtained at a data rate of 1.0625 Gbps comparing the BER measured by a commercial BER tester (Tektronix GB1400) with the PERmin value obtained from the software controlling the operation of apparatus of the present invention. It can be seen that a fairly close agreement exists between the two curves for a wide range of BER values. FIG. 12 b  shows the corresponding safety factor measurement.  
         [0077]    The present disclosure includes subject matter described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/442,878, the entirety of which is to be included in the present disclosure by reference.  
         [0078]    Although the present invention has been described above in terms of a specific embodiment, it is anticipated that alterations and modifications thereof will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore intended that the following claims be interpreted as covering all such alterations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.