EN 61280-2-3:2009

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-november-2009
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Fibre optic communication subsystem basic test procedures - Part 2-3: Test procedures
for digital systems - Jitter and wander measurements (IEC 61280-2-3:2009)
Lichtwellenleiter-Kommunikationsuntersysteme - Prüfverfahren - Teil: 2-3: Digitale
Systeme - Messung von Jitter und Wander (IEC 61280-2-3:2009)
Procédures d'essai des sous-systèmes de télécommunications à fibres optiques - Partie
2-3: Systèmes numériques - Mesures des gigues et des dérapages (CEI 61280-2-
3:2009)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 61280-2-3:2009
ICS:
33.180.01 6LVWHPL]RSWLþQLPLYODNQLQD Fibre optic systems in
VSORãQR general
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EUROPEAN STANDARD
EN 61280-2-3
NORME EUROPÉENNE
September 2009
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 33.180.01
English version
Fibre optic communication subsystem test procedures -
Part 2-3: Digital systems -
Jitter and wander measurements
(IEC 61280-2-3:2009)
Procédures d'essai des sous-systèmes  Prüfverfahren für Lichtwellenleiter-
de télécommunications à fibres optiques - Kommunikationsuntersysteme -
Partie 2-3: Systèmes numériques - Teil: 2-3: Digitale Systeme -
Mesures des gigues et des dérapages Messung von Jitter und Wander
(CEI 61280-2-3:2009) (IEC 61280-2-3:2009)

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 2009-08-01. CENELEC members are bound to comply
with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard
the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on
application to the Central Secretariat or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other
language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified
to the Central Secretariat has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

CENELEC
European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization
Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique
Europäisches Komitee für Elektrotechnische Normung

Central Secretariat: Avenue Marnix 17, B - 1000 Brussels

© 2009 CENELEC - All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved worldwide for CENELEC members.
Ref. No. EN 61280-2-3:2009 E
Foreword
The text of document 86C/885/FDIS, future edition 1 of IEC 61280-2-3, prepared by SC 86C, Fibre optic
systems and active devices, of IEC TC 86, Fibre optics, was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote
and was approved by CENELEC as EN 61280-2-3 on 2009-08-01.
The following dates were fixed:
– latest date by which the EN has to be implemented
at national level by publication of an identical
national standard or by endorsement (dop) 2010-05-01
– latest date by which the national standards conflicting
with the EN have to be withdrawn (dow) 2012-08-01
Annex ZA has been added by CENELEC.
__________
Endorsement notice
The text of the International Standard IEC 61280-2-3:2009 was approved by CENELEC as a European
Standard without any modification.
__________
- 3 - EN 61280-2-3:2009
Annex ZA
(normative)
Normative references to international publications
with their corresponding European publications

The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.

NOTE  When an international publication has been modified by common modifications, indicated by (mod), the relevant EN/HD
applies.
Publication Year Title EN/HD Year

1) 2)
IEC 60825-1 - Safety of laser products - EN 60825-1 2007
Part 1: Equipment classification and
requirements
1)
ITU-T - Timing characteristics of SDH equipment - -
Recommendation slave clocks (SEC)
G.813
1)
Undated reference.
2)
Valid edition at date of issue.

IEC 61280-2-3 ®
Edition 1.0 2009-07
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
Fibre optic communication subsystem test procedures –
Part 2-3: Digital systems – Jitter and wander measurements

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
W
ICS 33.180.01 ISBN 2-8318-1051-4
– 2 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.5
1 Scope.7
1.1 Types of jitter measurements .7
1.2 Types of wander measurements .7
2 Normative references .7
3 Terms and definitions .7
4 General considerations.11
4.1 Jitter generation .11
4.1.1 Timing jitter .11
4.1.2 Alignment jitter .11
4.1.3 Other effects.12
4.2 Effects of jitter on signal quality.12
4.3 Jitter tolerance .12
4.4 Waiting time jitter .13
4.5 Wander .14
5 Jitter test procedures.14
5.1 General considerations.14
5.1.1 Analogue method .14
5.1.2 Digital method .14
5.2 Common test equipment.15
5.3 Safety .16
5.4 Fibre optic connections .17
5.5 Test sample .17
6 Jitter tolerance measurement procedure.17
6.1 Purpose .17
6.2 Apparatus.17
6.3 BER penalty technique .17
6.3.1 Equipment connection .17
6.3.2 Equipment settings .18
6.3.3 Measurement procedure .18
6.4 Onset of errors technique .18
6.4.1 Equipment connection .18
6.4.2 Equipment settings .19
6.4.3 Measurement procedure .19
6.5 Jitter tolerance stressed eye receiver test .20
6.5.1 Purpose.20
6.5.2 Apparatus.20
6.5.3 Sinusoidal jitter template technique .20
7 Measurement of jitter transfer function .21
7.1 General .21
7.2 Apparatus.21
7.3 Basic technique.22
7.3.1 Equipment connection .22
7.3.2 Equipment settings .22
7.3.3 Measurement procedure .22
7.4 Analogue phase detector technique.23

61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E) – 3 –
7.4.1 Equipment connections.23
7.4.2 Equipment settings .23
7.4.3 Measurement procedure .24
7.4.4 Measurement calculations .24
8 Measurement of output jitter .24
8.1 General .24
8.2 Equipment connection .24
8.2.1 Equipment settings .24
8.2.2 Measurement procedure .24
8.2.3 Controlled data.25
9 Measurement of systematic jitter .25
9.1 Apparatus.25
9.2 Basic technique.25
9.2.1 Equipment connection .25
9.2.2 Equipment settings .26
9.2.3 Measurement procedure .26
10 BERT scan technique .27
10.1 Apparatus.29
10.2 Basic technique.29
10.2.1 Equipment connection .29
10.2.2 Equipment settings .29
10.2.3 Measurement process .29
11 Jitter separation technique .30
11.1 Apparatus.31
11.2 Equipment connections .31
11.3 Equipment settings.31
11.4 Measurement procedure.32
11.4.1 Sampling oscilloscope: .32
11.4.2 Real-time oscilloscope.32
12 Measurement of wander .33
12.1 Apparatus.33
12.2 Basic technique.33
12.2.1 Equipment connection .33
12.2.2 Equipment settings .34
12.2.3 Measurement procedure .35
13 Measurement of wander TDEV tolerance.35
13.1 Intent.35
13.2 Apparatus.35
13.3 Basic technique.35
13.4 Equipment connection .35
13.4.1 Wander TDEV tolerance measurement for the test signal of EUT .35
13.4.2 Wander TDEV tolerance measurement for timing reference signal of
EUT.36
13.5 Equipment settings.36
13.6 Measurement procedure.37
14 Measurement of wander TDEV transfer .37
14.1 Apparatus.37
14.2 Equipment connection .37

– 4 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
14.2.1 Wander TDEV transfer measurement for the test signal of EUT .37
14.2.2 Wander TDEV transfer measurement for timing reference signal of
EUT.37
14.3 Equipment settings.38
14.4 Measurement procedure.38
15 Test results .38
15.1 Mandatory information.38
15.2 Available information.39
Bibliography.40

Figure 1 – Jitter generation .11
Figure 2 – Example of jitter tolerance.13
Figure 3 – Jitter and wander generator .15
Figure 4 – Jitter and wander measurement .16
Figure 5 – Jitter stress generator .16
Figure 6 – Jitter tolerance measurement configuration: bit error ratio (BER) penalty
technique.18
Figure 7 – Jitter tolerance measurement configuration: Onset of errors technique .19
Figure 8 – Equipment configuration for stressed eye tolerance test.20
Figure 9 – Measurement of jitter transfer function: basic technique.22
Figure 10 – Measurement of Jitter transfer: analogue phase detector technique .23
Figure 11 – Output jitter measurement .25
Figure 12 – Systematic jitter measurement configuration: basic technique .26
Figure 13 – Measurement of the pattern-dependent phase sequence xi .27
Figure 14 – BERT scan bathtub curves (solid line for low jitter, dashed line for high
jitter).28
Figure 15 – Equipment setup for the BERT scan.29
Figure 16 – Dual Dirac jitter model.31
Figure 17 – Equipment setup for jitter separation measurement.31
Figure 18 – Measurement of time interval error.32
Figure 19 – Synchronized wander measurement configuration.34
Figure 20 – Non-synchronized wander measurement configuration .34
Figure 21 – Wander TDEV tolerance measurement configuration for the test signal of
EUT .36
Figure 22 – Wander TDEV tolerance measurement configuration for the timing signal
of EUT .36
Figure 23 – Wander TDEV transfer measurement configuration for the test signal of
EUT .37
Figure 24 – Wander TDEV transfer measurement configuration for the timing signal of
EUT .38

61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E) – 5 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
FIBRE OPTIC COMMUNICATION SUBSYSTEM
TEST PROCEDURES –
Part 2-3: Digital systems –
Jitter and wander measurements

FOREWORD
1) The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of the IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, the IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. The IEC collaborates
closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined
by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of the IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an
international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation
from all interested National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international unification, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC International
Standards transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional standards. Any
divergence between the IEC Standard and the corresponding national or regional standard shall be clearly
indicated in the latter.
5) The IEC provides no marking procedure to indicate its approval and cannot be rendered responsible for any
equipment declared to be in conformity with one of its standards.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard IEC 61280-2-3 has been prepared by subcommittee 86C: Fibre optic
systems and active devices, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
The text of this standard is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
86C/885/FDIS 86C/905/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this standard can be found in the report on
voting indicated in the above table.
A list of all parts of the IEC 61280-2 series, published under the general title Fibre optic
communication subsystem test procedures – Digital systems, can be found on the IEC
website.
– 6 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
The committee has decided that the contents of this publication will remain unchanged until
the maintenance result date indicated on the IEC web site under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in
the data related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication will be
• reconfirmed;
• withdrawn;
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual version may be published at a later date.

61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E) – 7 –
FIBRE OPTIC COMMUNICATION SUBSYSTEM
TEST PROCEDURES –
Part 2-3: Digital systems –
Jitter and wander measurements

1 Scope
This part of IEC 61280 specifies methods for the measurement of the jitter and wander
parameters associated with the transmission and handling of digital signals.
1.1 Types of jitter measurements
This standard covers the measurement of the following types of jitter parameters:
a) jitter tolerance
1) sinusoidal method
2) stressed eye method
b) jitter transfer function
c) output jitter
d) systematic jitter
e) jitter separation
1.2 Types of wander measurements
This standard covers the measurement of the following types of wander parameters:
a) non-synchronized wander
b) TDEV tolerance
c) TDEV transfer
d) synchronized wander
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document.
For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition
of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
IEC 60825-1, Safety of laser products – Part 1: Equipment classification and requirements
ITU-T Recommendation G.813, Timing characteristics of SDH equipment slave clocks (SEC)
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
NOTE See also IEC 61931.
– 8 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
3.1
jitter
the short-term, non-cumulative, variation in time of the significant instances of a digital signal
from their ideal position in time. Short-term variations in this context are jitter components
with a repetition frequency equal to or exceeding 10 Hz
3.2
jitter amplitude
the deviation of the significant instance of a digital signal from its ideal position in time
NOTE For the purposes of this standard the jitter amplitude is expressed in terms of the unit interval (UI). It is
recognized that jitter amplitude may also be expressed in units of time.
3.3
unit interval (UI)
the shortest interval between two equivalent instances in ideal positions in time. In practice
this is equivalent to the ideal timing period of the digital signal
3.4
jitter frequency
the rate of variation in time of the significant instances of a digital signal relative to their ideal
position in time. Jitter frequency is expressed in Hertz (Hz)
3.5
jitter bandwidth
the jitter frequency at which the jitter amplitude has decreased by 3dB relative to its maximum
value
3.6
alignment jitter
jitter created when the timing of a data signal is recovered from the signal itself
3.7
timing jitter
jitter present on a timing source
3.8
systematic jitter
jitter components which are not random and have a predictable rate of occurrence.
Systematic jitter in a digital signal results from regularly recurring features in the digital signal,
such as frame alignment data, and justification control data. This is sometimes referred to as
deterministic jitter and is composed of periodic uncorrelated jitter and data dependent jitter
3.9
periodic uncorrelated jitter
a form of systematic jitter that occurs at a regular rate, but is uncorrelated to the data when
the data pattern repeats. Periodic uncorrelated jitter will be the same independent of which
edge in a pattern is observed over time. Sources of periodic uncorrelated jitter include
switching power supplies phase modulating reference clocks or any form of periodic phase
modulation of clocks that control data rates
3.10
inter-symbol interference jitter
caused by bandwidth limitations in transmission channels. If the channel bandwidth is low,
signal transitions may not reach full amplitude before transitioning to a different logic state.
Starting at a level closer to the midpoint between logic states, the time at which the signal
edge then crosses a specific amplitude threshold can be early compared to consecutive
identical digits which have reached full amplitude and then switch to the other logic state

61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E) – 9 –
3.11
duty cycle distortion
occurs when the duration of a logic 1 (0-1-0) is different from the duration of a logic 0 (1-0-1).
For example, if the logic 1 has a longer duration, rising edges will occur early relative to
falling edges, compared to their ideal locations in time
3.12
data dependent jitter
represents jitter that is correlated to specific bits in a repeating data pattern. That is, when a
data pattern repeats, the jitter on any given signal edge will manifest itself in the same way for
any repetition of the pattern. It is due to either duty cycle distortion and/or inter-symbol
interference
3.13
waiting time jitter
applies to plesiochronous multiplexing and is defined as the jitter caused by the varying delay
between the demand for justification and its execution
3.14
jitter tolerance
maximum jitter amplitude that a digital receiver can accept for a given penalty or alternatively
without the addition of a given number of errors to the digital signal. The maximum jitter
amplitude tolerated is generally dependent on the frequency of the jitter
3.15
jitter generation
process of adding jitter impairment to a data signal
3.16
input jitter
magnitude of the jitter occurring at a hierarchical interface or the input port of equipment or a
device
3.17
output jitter
magnitude of the jitter occurring at a hierarchical interface or the output port of equipment or a
device
3.18
jitter transfer
amount of jitter transferred from the input to the output of an equipment or device. It is usually
expressed as a ratio (in dB) of the output jitter to the input jitter
3.19
total jitter
the summation (or convolution) of deterministic and random jitter. Total jitter is expressed as
a peak value
3.20
jitter bathtub curve
display of bit-error-ratio as a function of the time location of the BERT error detector sampling
point. The resulting curve is then a display of the probability that a data edge will be
misplaced at or beyond a specific location (closer to the centre of a bit) within a unit interval
3.21
wander
long-term, non-cumulative, variation in time of the significant instances of a digital signal from
their ideal position in time. Long-term variations in this context are jitter components with a
repetition frequency less than 10 Hz

– 10 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
NOTE For the purpose of this document, the wander amplitude is expressed in units of time (s). It is recognised
that wander amplitude may also be expressed in terms of unit interval (UI).
3.22
time interval error
TIE
difference between the measure of a time interval as provided by a clock and the measure of
that same time interval as provided by a reference clock. Mathematically, the time interval
error function TIE (t;τ) can be expressed as:
TIE(t;τ ) =[]T()t + τ −T(t) −[Tref (t + τ ) −Tref (t)] = x(t + τ ) − x(t) (1)
where τ is the time interval, usually called observation interval
3.23
maximum time interval error
MTIE
maximum peak-to-peak delay variation of a given timing signal with respect to an ideal timing
signal within an observation time (τ = nτ ) for all observation times of that length within the
measurement period (T). It is estimated using the following formula:
⎤
⎡
⎥
MTIE(nτ ) ≅ ⎢ − n = 1,2KN − 1 (2)
max maxx minx
i i
⎥
⎢
1≤k≤N −n⎣k≤i≤k+n k≤i≤k+n
⎥
⎦
3.24
time deviation
TDEV or σx
measure of the expected time variation of a signal as a function of integration time. TDEV can
also provide information about the spectral content of the phase (or time) noise of a signal.
TDEV is in units of time. Based on the sequence of time error samples, TDEV is estimated
using the following calculation:
N−3n+1 n+ j−1
⎡ ⎤
1 ⎛ N⎞
⎢ ⎥
TDEV()nτ ≅ ( − 2 + ) n = 1,2K,int part⎜ ⎟
(3)
∑ ∑
x x x
2 i+2n i+n i
⎢ ⎥ 3
6n (N − 3n + 1) ⎝ ⎠
j=1 i=j
⎣ ⎦
where
x denotes time error samples;
i
N denotes the total number of samples;
τ denotes the time error-sampling interval;
τ  denotes the integration time, the independent variable of TDEV;
n  denotes the number of sampling intervals within the integration time t.
3.25
bit error ratio
BER
number of bits received in error as a ratio of the total number of bits received
3.26
errored second
time of 1 s duration that contains one or more digital errors in a data stream

61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E) – 11 –
4 General considerations
4.1 Jitter generation
Jitter in a digital signal is generated by three basic processes which are briefly described
below. The mathematical analysis of the jitter processes is complex and not within the scope
of this standard. A comprehensive analysis and early mathematical treatise of the jitter
processes is provided by [1] .
4.1.1 Timing jitter
Jitter impairment of the original data timing clock. Even the most stable timing sources
contain a certain amount of jitter, or unintended phase modulation or phase noise. In primary
timing generators this impairment is exceedingly small, but is increased when such timing
signals are distributed in a system. The effect of noise on the timing signal in a digital system
is demonstrated in an exaggerated degree in Figure 1.
Ideal timing
Noise on timing signal
Detection threshold
Timing signal
p- p Jitter amplitude
IEC  1164/09
Figure 1 – Jitter generation
4.1.2 Alignment jitter
When a digital pattern is presented to a timing recovery circuit, the continuous variation of the
digital pattern results in the creation of jitter in the recovered clock signal relative to the
incoming data (alignment jitter). This effect, first analyzed and described in detail by [2] is the
major cause of jitter generation. It means that the jitter components of the recovered clock
signal are added to the data when they are retimed. The jitter bandwidth created by this
process is the same as the analogue bandwidth of the clock recovery circuit used.
When the process is repeated at a similar equipment, the resultant clock signal shows
increased jitter due to the addition of timing and alignment jitter. Thus, jitter is added to the
data signal, and amplified at the next timing recovery operation. A repetition of this process,
such as occurs in transmission links with many repeaters, or chains of add-drop multiplexers,
can build up substantial jitter amplitudes; but as long as the bandwidth of the timing recovery
process is the same or greater than the jitter bandwidth of the signal, the jitter will always be
accommodated. An analysis of the accumulation of jitter in successive timing recovery
operations was first published by [3]. The jitter buildup can be represented by an equation of
the form:
—————————
Figures in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.

– 12 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
k
n
⎛ 1 ⎞
θn = θ (jω)⎜ ⎟ (4)
∑ 0
⎜ ⎟
1+ j ω / B
⎝ ⎠
k=1
The above equation yields a jitter power density spectrum which can be expressed in the
form:
⎡ n ⎤
sin ω
⎢ ⎥
2 2B
φ ≈ n φ for ω< ⎢ ⎥
n 0
n
⎢ ⎥
ω
⎢ ⎥
2B
⎣ ⎦
where
θ denotes the jitter amplitude after n timing recovery processes
n
θ denotes the jitter amplitude introduced at each individual timing recovery process
n denotes the number of tandem timing recovery processes
ω denotes the angular frequency (2πf) of the jitter component
B denotes the half angular bandwidth of the timing recovery circuit
Ф denotes the jitter power density after n timing recovery processes
n
Ф denotes the jitter power density introduced at each individual timing recovery process
It should be noted that for low values of frequency the power density and hence amplitude of
the jitter increases linearly with the number of tandem timing recovery processes.
In point-to-point communications systems, where transmitter timing is not derived from
incoming data, alignment jitter and jitter build-up is not a significant problem.
4.1.3 Other effects
In the course of the transmission of a digital signal, further impairments such as added noise
and dispersion effects provide additional jitter components when timing is recovered from the
signal. Such effects are more severe when analogue amplification is used rather than digital
regeneration in order to increase the length of a digital link.
4.2 Effects of jitter on signal quality
Jitter has no effect on the transmission of data as long as the equipment can accommodate
the jitter amplitude and rate of deviation (see 4.3). When jitter is large enough or fast enough
such that the receiver decision point is made near or beyond a data edge, a mistake can be
made and BER degraded. Jitter, depending on its amplitude and frequency, can also have
serious effects on analogue services such as music and television which have been
transmitted over digital links. The effect of jitter is to introduce unwanted frequency and phase
modulation products which are audible in music and visible on television pictures.
4.3 Jitter tolerance
In telecommunications systems, jitter tolerance requirements are typically specified in terms
of jitter templates, which cover a specified sinusoidal amplitude/frequency region. Jitter
templates represent the minimum amount of jitter the equipment shall be able to accept
without producing the specified degradation of error performance. A typical relationship
between actual jitter tolerance and its associated tolerance template is illustrated in Figure 2.
The jitter amplitudes that equipment actually tolerates at a given frequency are defined as all
amplitudes up to, but not including, that which causes the designated degradation of error
performance. The designated degradation of error performance may be expressed in terms of
either bit-error-ratio (BER) penalty or the onset of errors criteria. The existence of these two

61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E) – 13 –
criteria arises because the input jitter tolerance of digital equipment is primarily determined by
the following three factors:
a) ability of the input clock recovery circuit to accurately recover the timing from a jittered
data signal, including the presence of other degradations such as pulse distortion,
crosstalk, noise, and other impairments;
b) ability of the input circuit buffer, for example an elastic store, to accommodate the jitter
amplitude;
c) ability of other components to accommodate dynamically varying input data rates such
as pulse justification capacity and synchronizer and de-synchronizer buffer size in an
asynchronous digital multiplex.
Actual jitter tolerance
Operating jitter margin
Template specification
Acceptable region
dB/decade
Unacceptable region
IEC  1165/09
Figure 2 – Example of jitter tolerance
In data communications systems, jitter tolerance is often determined with signal impairments
that are more complex than simple sinusoidal jitter. The general concept is to verify that the
receiver is capable of achieving the desired BER when presented with the allowable signal it
will encounter in a real system. Thus the jitter tolerance test signal will include impairments
that are allowed for both the transmitter and the channel. For example, a real transmitter may
have periodic jitter, random jitter, and duty cycle distortion. As the signal traverses the
channel, it may be further degraded through a bandwidth limited channel, thus adding inter-
symbol interference jitter. As the receiver shall be able to tolerate such a signal in a real
system, the signal used to verify receiver tolerance shall include all of these impairments.
This method of testing is sometimes referred to as “stressed eye” testing, indicating that the
eye diagram of the signal presented to a receiver has been intentionally degraded or
stressed.
4.4 Waiting time jitter
When asynchronous (plesiochronous) signals are multiplexed, a justification technique (also
known as pulse stuffing) is used which involves the comparison of the phase of the incoming
digital signal with the multiplexer’s tributary timing. When a preset difference is detected a
control signal is transmitted, via the overhead in the multiplex frame structure, to the
demultiplexer. In order to ensure the integrity of the control signal in the presence of errors, it
is repeated 3 or 5 times. At the demultiplexer a majority decision is taken to recognize the

– 14 – 61280-2-3 © IEC:2009(E)
control signal. This delay introduces an uncertainty and varying delay in the time between the
demand for justification and its execution at the demultiplexer, and expresses itself as waiting
time jitter.
4.5 Wander
Wander is essentially caused by periodic variations in the delay of a transmission path and
slow variations in the frequency of data clocks. The boundary between jitter and wander at a
frequency of 10 Hz is somewhat artificial since most significant wander effects occur at
repetition rates of hours, days, months and seasons. In general wander is caused by
temperature changes which affect the delays of the transmission medium or equipment. For
terrestrial transmission, wander components are normally limited to a few tens of
nanoseconds.
In synchronous networks the accommodation of wander is an essential feature since a single
bit slip will initiate a resynchronization process with consequent loss of data. If this occurs at
a high level demultiplexer, all lower levels will also resynchronize which will exacerbate the
loss of data. Wander is normally accommodated by increasing the size of the elastic store
used to accommodate jitter.
A special case is the wander effect that occurs in communications via geostationary satellites.
While the lateral position of such satellites is relatively stable, their mean height of some
35 000 km above the earth’s surface has a diurnal variation which may be up to approximately
±1 000 km. This results in delay variations per hop of approximately 26 ms. At a data rate of
150 Mbit/s this represents a wander rate of some 45 bits/s and requires an elastic store with a
capacity of at least 3,9 Mbits to accommodate i
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