A method of analyzing an optical transport network comprising: receiving, by a linear module, an input power profile, amplifier characteristics, transport fiber characteristics, and a set of operating parameters associated with each optical link element from a computer readable memory; generating, by the linear module, a linear optical signal-to-noise ratio, OSNR, and an output power profile for each optical link element of an optical link based on the input power profile, the amplifier characteristics, the transport fiber characteristics, and the set of operating parameters, wherein the output power profile represents the input power profile of a next optical link element of the optical link; generating, by a nonlinear module, a nonlinear OSNR for each optical link element based on the input power profile and transport fiber characteristics of each optical link element, wherein the generation of the nonlinear OSNR is computed using a Volterra-Series propagator, and wherein said computation comprises the computation of a first and a second Volterra series run, wherein the first Volterra series run is computed by using the generated output power profile set to an average launch power, and wherein the second Volterra series run is computed using an actual output power profile computed by the linear module; determining, by an optical link performance module, an expected performance metric for the optical link based on the linear OSNR, the non-linear OSNR, and a transmitter output OSNR; and designating, by the optical link performance module, the optical link as valid for use in the optical transport network based on determining that the expected performance metric is greater than or equal to a performance metric threshold. receiving, by a linear module, an input power profile, amplifier characteristics, transport fiber characteristics, and a set of operating parameters associated with each optical link element from a computer readable memory; generating, by the linear module, a linear optical signal-to-noise ratio, OSNR, and an output power profile for each optical link element of an optical link based on the input power profile, the amplifier characteristics, the transport fiber characteristics, and the set of operating parameters, wherein the output power profile represents the input power profile of a next optical link element of the optical link; generating, by a nonlinear module, a nonlinear OSNR for each optical link element based on the input power profile and transport fiber characteristics of each optical link element, wherein the generation of the nonlinear OSNR is computed using a Volterra-Series propagator, and wherein said computation comprises the computation of a first and a second Volterra series run, wherein the first Volterra series run is computed by using the generated output power profile set to an average launch power, and wherein the second Volterra series run is computed using an actual output power profile computed by the linear module; determining, by an optical link performance module, an expected performance metric for the optical link based on the linear OSNR, the non-linear OSNR, and a transmitter output OSNR; and designating, by the optical link performance module, the optical link as valid for use in the optical transport network based on determining that the expected performance metric is greater than or equal to a performance metric threshold. <EOS>