While testing and commissioning our new Nokia PSS-1830 with IR4 IROADM cards, we also needed to validate the solution. One of the tests is the Bit Error Rate (BER) and the service delivery.

To determine the BER, you’d like to know the probability of a bit being lost or corrupted during transport. While you could send 2 packets and receive 2, drawing the statistically unsound conclusion of 0% packet loss.

So the test methodology is to send loads of data over a time span and then calculate the probability of losing some data. For each transceiver speed, from 1Gbit to 800Gbit, there is a relationship between probability and test duration.

In our test, we used the standard of 10^-14 probability of a bit error, which is 0.00000000000001%. This translates to a test duration of about 42 minutes at a full 400Gbit data rate without errors!