Powerful 800G testing with real traffic

EXFO’s BA-4000-L2 is a combined layer 1 BER tester and Ethernet (L2) traffic analyzer for 800G DR4/FR4/LR4 and 1.6T optical engines. It addresses the comprehensive testing requirements of 1.6T optical engines (100G electrical, 200G optical per lane), 800G transceivers (200G per lane), as well as DCO transceivers. The solution includes FEC testing (including FEC statistics), burst error detection and BER calculated from host to end for the industry’s most reliable measure of error when testing optical transceivers, including LPO devices.

Superior hardware design

Native electrical interface

Excellent signal quality

Clean eye diagram

Low error floor

Key features

Superior hardware design: native electrical interface, excellent signal quality, clean eye diagram and low error floor

Layer 2 framed testing: delivers a real system view for L1 device under test (DUT) from L2 framed traffic

Layer 1 BERT: excellent signal quality alongside layer 2 testing

Real-time FEC analysis: testing of pre/post FEC BER, symbol error distribution and FEC margin

Powerful equalizer and channel simulator: powerful equalizer includes CTLE, 32 taps FFE and DFE. Ideal for LPO transceivers

Layer 2 testing: tests 800G DR4/FR4/LR4/ZR with framed L2 traffic

Link training: provides adjustable TX and FFE weight to enable link training

Detection of burst errors: looks beyond the average level of bit error rate

Breakout cable testing: supports breakout cables testing scenarios including 8x 100G and 2x 400G

Latency measurements: measures transmission delay introduced by a DUT, ideal for latency-sensitive applications

Real behavior of frame loss ratio as determined by Ethernet, layer 2 testing—a key performance parameter from a system perspective

Hardware option optimized for LPO transceiver testing

Discover the BA-4000-L2

The BA-4000-L2, delivers a layer 2 framed signal to validate segmented FEC (DCO) and 200G per lane optic transceivers. Plus, its powerful equalizer and channel simulator are ideal for LPO testing.

Watch this short video introduction by EXFO’s Andrea Guglierame to learn more.

Powerful equalizer and channel simulator is ideal for LPO testing

With LPO transceivers, no DSP is present to precondition or equalize the electrical signal, as is done in retimed optics. Therefore, any change in signal integrity on the host side is reflected onto the optical side and the more times the signal is handed off, the more potential for introduction of bit errors. Traditional transceiver testing techniques can’t pick up this signal degradation so new, more powerful testing techniques are required. The BA-4000-L2 detects the presence of reflection, intersymbol interference (ISI) and FEC tail instability which are key performance indicators, capturing the presence of errors. Learn more.

Segmented FEC (DCO) and concatenated FEC (200G/lanes) architectures require L2 framed traffic

In the latest generation of optics and transceivers, the forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding function is moving from the host side to within the optical transceiver. With this evolution in functionality, transceivers are no longer agnostic electrical-to-optical converters and therefore FEC testing is required for applicable transceivers. The BA-4000-L2 delivers a layer 2 framed signal to validate DCO and 200G per lane optical transceivers.