Error rate monitoring for digital communications

The error rate is an important measure of performance in digital communications system, since it gives an indication of the quality of the received information. This paper provides a tutorial overview of methods of error monitoring under four broad classifications, namely, test sequences, parameter measurements, violation detection, and pseudo-error monitoring. A brief discussion of several approaches towards performance monitoring and the definition of error rate parameters is also given. The various methods are described and compared; but, no one monitor is singled out as the "best" since the final choice depends largely on the specific requirements of a given application.