Abstract: A method and apparatus of a device that determines transmit and receive skew times between pairs of lanes of an electrical interface of a network element is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device couple an optical loopback to transmit and receive interfaces of an optical interface, the optical loopback capable of transporting a first optical signal with a plurality of polarization and quadrature combinations. In addition, the device determines the receive skew time by transmitting a second optical signal on the optical loopback with one of the plurality of polarization and quadrature combinations. Furthermore, the device determines the transmit skew time by, tuning transmission delays on the transmit interface for a third optical signal with components corresponding to a pair of the plurality of polarization and quadrature combinations such that the third optical signal is recoverable on the receive interface.

Abstract: An auto-equalization network device for optical transmitting and receiving is provided. The device includes a network device having an optical transmitter and an optical receiver. The network device is configured to determine a frequency domain forward transmission loss characterization for a signal transmitted by the optical transmitter, looped back and received by the optical receiver. The device is configured to generate a model in the frequency domain having control points based on the characterization, generate and load finite impulse response (FIR) filter taps into a finite impulse response filter based on the model in the frequency domain.