Patent ID: 8347153

Claim:
A physical layer test and measurement system with protocol awareness, comprising: an analog front end (AFE) unit with physical layer testing capabilities the AFE unit adapted to generate and provide a signal to a device under test modulated to selectively include one of random and deterministic jitter components, the device under test acting as a signal receiver, the AFE unit further adapted to receive a signal from the device under test, the device under test acting as a signal transmitter; and a general purpose platform (GPP) with protocol awareness capabilities of one or more predefined protocols, the GPP further being adapted to perform testing on an input signal received from the AFE to determine errors on a protocol packet level at a plurality of different speeds of operation of the device under test in accordance with one or more of the one or more predefined protocols, and to provide a serial bit stream in accordance with one or more of the one or more predefined protocols, and in accordance with one or more results of the performed testing, to the AFE for use in generating the signal to be provided to the device under test.