Protocol Aware Error Ratio Tester

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for testing the physical layer of high speed serial communication devices and systems with a protocol aware test and measurement system is disclosed. This system includes two major units, a General Purpose Platform (GPP) that includes a protocol awareness and is capable of traffic generation and reception at a protocol level, and an Analog Front End (AFE) that includes physical layer testing capabilities. Physical layer testing is divided into two sets of testing procedures: Receiver testing and Transmitter testing. This test system can be used in a traditional BERT setting where the test system commands the Device Under Test (DUT) to be placed into either a loop back mode and the tester is expecting the same bit flow it transmitted, coming back from the DUT, or into a more advanced mode where the test system is in communication with the DUT like a protocol exerciser and counts the frame error ratio while stressing the DUT. This frame error ratio is protocol dependent and each protocol receiver has its own way of reporting transmission errors to the transmitter. The protocol awareness of this invention is capable of detecting such a level of errors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.