Signal to noise and distortion ratio (sndr) analysis for characterization of a linear pluggable optics (lpo) module

An apparatus comprising:

• an interface configured to enable network communications;
• a memory;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the interface and the memory, and configured to:
• receive, at a linear pluggable optics (LPO) module, a signal from a host;
• convert, by the LPO module, the signal to an optical signal;
• isolate nonlinear distortion of the optical signal attributable, at least in part, to the LPO module;
• determine a portion of the nonlinear distortion that is memoryless;
• process the signal to reduce an impact of the portion of the nonlinear distortion that is memoryless and to generate a processed signal;
• and
• determine a signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) level of the processed signal based on a remaining portion of the nonlinear distortion.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• convert a signal, obtained at a linear pluggable optics (LPO) module from a host, to an optical signal;
• isolate nonlinear distortion of the optical signal attributable, at least in part, to the LPO module;
• determine a portion of the nonlinear distortion that is memoryless;
• process the signal to reduce an impact of the portion of the nonlinear distortion that is memoryless and to generate a processed signal;
• and
• determine a signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) level of the processed signal based on a remaining portion of the nonlinear distortion.