Patent ID: 8111986

Claim:
A method for testing a transmitter for an optical fiber communications link, the method comprising: accessing a stored waveform for the transmitter under test, wherein the stored waveform is based on capture of an optical output generated by the transmitter in response to a data test pattern applied to the transmitter; processing the waveform in software, to simulate propagation of the waveform through a reference channel and/or a reference receiver; determining a pulse response for the transmitter under test; synthesizing a transmitter response to a square wave input from the pulse response; determining a temporal offset between the synthesized transmitter response and an expected waveform timing; generating an aligned transmitter response to the square wave input by removing the temporal offset; computing an optical modulation amplitude (OMA) of the aligned transmitter response to the square wave input; and calculating a performance metric for the transmitter based on the OMA.