BER-OSNR Back-to-Back is a method to assess Bit Error Rate (BER) and Optical Signal-to-Noise Ratio (OSNR) by directly connecting a transceiver without an intermediate transmission line. This setup simplifies quality assessment, typically with a minimal Q-factor error of around 0.2 dB, making it useful for transceiver validation in controlled environments.

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Measuring the Transceivers Back-to-Back BER-OSNR Characteristic Using Only a Variable Optical Attenuator

We propose a transceiver back-to-back BER-OSNR characterization method that requires only a single VOA; it leverages the receiver SNR degradation caused by received power attenuation. Experiments using commercial transceivers show that the measurement error is less than 0.2 dB in the Q-factor.