Patent ID: 8839066

Claim:
A method, comprising: generating control signals; selecting one of a plurality of transmitters and supplying control signals to the selected one of the plurality of transmitters; encoding a series of bits to provide an encoded data stream; receiving the encoded data stream with said selected one of the plurality of transmitters; changing, in response to the control signals, a group of bits in the received encoded data stream to provide a first errored data stream, the changed group of bits being first errored bits; transmitting, with said selected one of the plurality of transmitters, a first optical signal over an optical link, the first optical signal carrying the first errored data stream, the transmission of the first optical signal over the optical link causing second errored bits to occur in the transmitted first errored data stream, such that the first and second errored bits are carried by the first optical signal; performing a first plurality of iterations of forward error correction (FEC) decoding of the first errored data stream until the first plurality of errored bits are corrected; transmitting a second optical signal carrying third errored bits, but not the first errored bits, the third errored bits being caused by the transmission of the second optical signal over the optical link; and determining a number of a second plurality of iterations of the FEC decoding to correct the third errored bits, said determining being based, in part, on a number of the first plurality of iterations.