Fiber optic transmission systems are continuing to push data rates to higher levels. As rates increase so does the negative contribution of jitter in networks. Understanding and controlling jitter throughout the network is key to error free transmission. Optical transceivers are a significant component in telecom network equipment. For an optical transceiver, it is important to establish if:
- The device receiver can tolerate enough incoming jitter (jitter tolerance)
- The device transmitter produces too much jitter (jitter generation)
- Passing jittered data through the device causes an excessive increase (gain) in jitter on the data being re-transmitted (jitter transfer).
In this paper we look at telecom jitter standards SONET, SDH, and OTN, and how jitter affects error free transmission. Also, through a practical example measuring an XFP transceiver we verify the SONET jitter standard using the SyntheSys Research BERTScope S and BERTScope DCRj, capable of testing beyond 11.1 Gb/s.