Patent ID: 7096176

Claim:
A method for analyzing the performance of a design of an optical span, said method comprising the steps of: selecting components that make-up the optical span; optimizing the optical span to make an operable optical span; performing a margin analysis on said operable optical span to determine how much change said operable optical span can tolerate in a plurality of case types before said operable optical span becomes an inoperable optical span, wherein said step of performing a margin analysis on said operable optical span further includes the steps of: receiving at least one parameter identifying incremental changes that are to be made to said operable optical span; incorporating an incremental change into at least one component of said operable optical span in accordance with a case type; analyzing the changed optical span; determining whether the changed optical span is an operable optical span; determining whether all of the components of the optical span and all of the case types have been analyzed; and presenting the results of the margin analysis to a user.