Predictive network testing

1. An apparatus to evaluate network performance in a communication network, comprising:

a processor to:

receive a sequence of symbols;

compute displacements of the sequence of symbols based on at least a sequence of modulation symbol decisions; and

predict a network performance using at least the computed displacements and a first set of decision boundaries and a second set of decision boundaries, wherein the first set of decision boundaries comprises a first modulation format and the second set of decision boundaries comprises a second modulation format.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a receiver to receive from the communications network a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) carrier signal from which a sequence of symbols is obtained, wherein the QAM signal comprises the first modulation format.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein to predict the network performance, the processor is to:

compare the displacements of the sequence of symbols to one or more decision thresholds associated with the second set of decision boundaries, wherein the second modulation format has a modulation order different from a modulation order of the first modulation format.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein to predict the network performance, the processor is to:

determine whether the set of decision boundaries associated with the first modulation format is crossed;

predict whether the second set of decision boundaries will be crossed; and

in response to a determination that the set of decision boundaries associated with the first modulation format is not crossed or a determination that the second set of decision boundaries will not be crossed, determine a remaining margin.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein for at least one of the first modulation format and the second modulation format, the processor is to compute:

an error margin for each symbol of the sequence of symbols; and

a parameter representing a number of symbols having an error margin that is smaller than a pre-determined value.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor is to compute, for the second modulation format, a projected correctable codeword error rate (CER) and a projected uncorrectable CER.

7. An apparatus to evaluate network performance in a communication network, comprising:

a processor to:

receive a sequence of symbols;

quantify an error margin available at a first modulation format before decision boundaries of a set of decision boundaries associated with the first modulation format are crossed by symbols of the sequence of symbols; and

predict network performance at a second modulation format.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising:

a demodulator to demodulate, using the first modulation format, a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) carrier signal received from a communication network from which the sequence of symbols is obtained; and

a slicer to determine a sequence of modulation symbol decisions from the sequence of symbols according to the set of decision boundaries for the first modulation format.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein to predict the network performance at the second modulation format, the processor is to:

compute displacements of the sequence of symbols with respect to the sequence of modulation symbol decisions based on the set of decision boundaries for the first modulation format; and

compare the displacements to one or more decision boundaries associated with a second set of decision boundaries associated with the second modulation format.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first modulation format has a modulation order and the second modulation format has a modulation order higher than the modulation order of the first modulation format, and wherein the processor is to:

predict whether the second set of decision boundaries for the second modulation format having the higher modulation order will be crossed; and

in response to a determination that the second set of decision boundaries will not be crossed, determine a remaining margin.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processor is to compute, for the second modulation format, a projected correctable codeword error rate (CER) and a projected uncorrectable CER.

12. A method of evaluating network performance of a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving a sequence of symbols;

computing, at a processor, displacements of the sequence of symbols based on at least a sequence of modulation symbol decisions; and

predicting a network performance using at least the computed displacements and a first set of decision boundaries and a second set of decision boundaries, wherein the first set of decision boundaries comprises a first modulation format and the second set of decision boundaries comprises a second modulation format.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the sequence of symbols is obtained from a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) carrier signal, wherein the QAM signal comprises a first modulation format.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein predicting the network performance of the second modulation format comprises:

comparing, at the processor, the displacements of the received symbols to decision thresholds for a second set of decision boundaries associated with the second modulation format by:

determining whether the set of decision boundaries for the first modulation format is crossed;

predicting whether the second set of decision boundaries will be crossed; and

in response to a determination that the set of decision boundaries for the first modulation format is not crossed or a determination that the second set of decision boundaries will not be crossed, determining a remaining margin.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the second set of decision boundaries is tighter than the set of decision boundaries for the first modulation format.

16. The method of claim 13 , where in the processor comprises at least one of the following:

computing a symbol margin-to-error value for each received symbol of the received symbols for the first modulation format using the set of decision boundaries; and

computing a projected symbol margin-to-error value for each received symbol for the second modulation format using a second set of decision boundaries associated with the second modulation format.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising computing a parameter representing a number of received symbols having the computed symbol margin-to-error value or the computed projected symbol margin-to-error value that is smaller than a pre-determined value.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein demodulating the QAM signal to obtain the sequence of received symbols comprises demodulating the QAM signal to obtain a series of received packets, the series of received packets including the sequence of received symbols, and

wherein the method further comprises generating an alarm when a pre-defined percentage of the received packets have at least one received symbol within a pre-defined margin from a decision boundary of the set of decision boundaries for the first modulation format.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein predicting the network performance comprises at least one of the following:

codeword error rate (CER) for the second modulation format;

computing a projected uncorrectable CER for the second modulation format;

computing a margin score based on at least one of the projected symbol margin-to-error value, the projected correctable CER, and the projected uncorrectable CER; and

displaying the margin score on a graphical user interface.