Optical receivers are put to the stress test

Design and test engineers can now accurately characterise and verify standard conformance of receive optical subassemblies and transceiver modules operating up to 12.5Gbit/s.

Billed as the first of its kind, the Agilent N4917A optical receiver stress test set provides repeatable conformance and characterisation test results.

Design and test engineers in the communications and storage industry can now accurately characterise and verify standard conformance of receive optical subassemblies and transceiver modules operating up to 12.5Gbit/s.

Optical component vendors are experiencing a certain revival after years of industry consolidation - especially due to increasing demand for 10Gbit/s Ethernet and next-generation Fibre Channel deployments, which are driving optical component redesigns and optimisations.

Most multisource agreements require 10Gbit/s components that tolerate Ethernet and Fibre Channel datarates and encodings.

In the past, engineers had to select, calibrate and operate test equipment, adapters and cables from many different vendors.

For each standard, different instrument setups, filters and cabling were required.

Correct interpretation of the test approach for each standard required in-depth insight of experienced engineers in the lab.

All this led to difficult-to-reproduce and hard-to-compare test results between different labs or even between suppliers and users.

The new Agilent N4917A optical receiver stress test set provides R and D and test engineers with a complete test solution.

Benefits include: accurate test results with calibrated injection of optical modulation amplitude (OMA), extinction ratio (ER) and vertical eye closure penalty (VECP); automated conformance and characterisation tests for 10GBase-LR, -ER and 10G Fibre Channel, which save programming and testing time; affordable solution with one reference transmitter supporting 1310 and 1550nm single-mode fibres; and reproducible setups with Agilent-verified adapter kit.

Calibrated injection of OMA, ER and VECP is now easy.

The automation software controls all instruments and allows the user to inject compliant and variable ER and OMA to stress the receiver under test.

The Agilent 81490A reference transmitter supports 1310nm as well as 1550nm single-mode fibres, reducing the amount of test equipment needed when testing devices for multiple standards.

The new Agilent adapter kits with verified filters and cables make measurements more reproducible across different test sites.

"Agilent's complete optical receiver stress test solution combines the strengths of Agilent's leading physical layer test products with our decades of expertise in optical measurement", said Siegfried Gross, Vice President and General Manager of Agilent's Digital Verification Solutions.

"Custom test setups required lots of tuning, which occupied engineering resources and were hard to reproduce".

"With the new complete optical receiver stress test solution, Agilent again demonstrates its leading role in enabling the next generation of the broadband infrastructure".

The Agilent optical receiver stress test solution consists of the N4917A calibration and automation software, the 81490A reference transmitter for 1310 and 1550nm single mode, the 81495A reference receiver, accessory kits for 10Gbit/s Ethernet 10GBase-LR, -ER and 10G Fibre Channel testing, the J-BERT N4903A high-performance serial BERT, and the 86100C Infiniium DCA-J.

The Agilent N4917A optical receiver stress test software and the accessory kit for 10GbE-LR and -ER and 10G FC are priced at US $16,500.

The Agilent 81490A optical reference transmitter is priced at $68,500 and the 81495A optical reference receiver is priced at $17,850.

All products may be ordered beginning in May 2007.

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