The most advanced equipment for high-speed serial communications uses components such as SERDES devices, active optical cables, and optical transceiver modules that send and receive serial data without transmitting synchronous clock signals. Until now, measuring the BER and jitter of these systems required an external clock recovery instrument. Thanks to the MP1800A's internal clock recovery options, users can perform these measurements with a single device.
The MP1800A is a modular BER tester consisting of a pulse pattern generator and a high-sensitivity input error detector. A jitter modulation source can be installed on the instrument to generate various types of jitter, allowing users to test a device's jitter tolerance. BER testing is commonly performed by manufacturers developing new generations of network equipment designed to handle the ever-increasing traffic volumes worldwide.
To increase processing speed, high-performance servers in data centers are standardizing on high-speed serial communication methods that exceed current data transmission speeds of 25 Gbit/s, such as 100 GbE (100G Base CR4, KR4), InfiniBand EDR, IEC-28G, 32G FC, and others. Communication backbone networks are developing next-generation transmission technologies that achieve data transmission speeds of 400 Gbit/s. Anritsu has developed its MP1800A signal quality analyzer as a platform for evaluating the high-speed interconnects incorporated in this equipment, and it already allows for BER and jitter measurements up to 32 Gbit/s. The new clock recovery options announced today enhance these capabilities by providing BER measurements on clockless and jitter-tolerant devices, offering more accurate signal integrity analysis across a wide range of applications.
