GENERATING EYE-DIAGRAMS AND NETWORK PROTOCOL ANALYSIS OF A DATA SIGNAL

1 . In a communications system, a method for displaying information describing a signal transmitted in the communication system, the method comprising:

receiving the signal with a tapping device;

transmitting the signal to a network protocol analyzer, the network protocol analyzer including an interface for performing protocol analysis of the signal;

constructing an eye-diagram of the signal; and

displaying the protocol analysis data received from the monitoring interface of the transceiver together with the eye-diagram of the signal.

2 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein constructing an eye-diagram of the signal comprises:

identifying a maximum signal sample from the set of signal samples;

identifying a minimum signal sample from the set of signal samples;

identifying a target as a midpoint between the maximum signal sample and the minimum signal sample; and

using the target as a reference point by identifying a point where multiple waveform crossings are displayed simultaneously on an overlaid time base.

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the target is identified by adding half the difference between the maximum signal sample and the minimum signal sample value to the minimum signal value.

4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the eye-diagram is generated from the set of samples stored to memory.

5 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the eye-diagram is generated by sampling the signal using the target as a target point when the signal is sampled to overlay the oscillations of the signal and generate the eye-diagram.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the network analyzer includes a network processor configured to receive the network data, a distribution module coupled to the network processor configured to receive the network data from the network processor, and a plurality of analysis processors each for performing analysis of specific portions of the network data.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , where the signal represents a signal transmitted over a Fibre Channel link or an Ethernet link.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , where the signal represents a signal transmitted at a rate between about 1 Gigabyte per second and 10 Gigabytes per second.

9 . The method for according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one of the acts of measuring jitter, measuring extinction ration, or performing a mask test.

10 . In a communications system, a method for displaying information describing a signal transmitted in the communication system, the method comprising the following:

receiving the signal with a tapping device;

transmitting the signal to a network protocol analyzer, the network protocol analyzer including an interface for performing protocol analysis of the signal;

sampling the signal at a percentage of the harmonic frequency of the signal, the harmonic frequency of the signal being equal to the bit-rate divided by an integer;

identifying a target as a midpoint between a maximum signal sample and the minimum signal sample;

constructing an eye-diagram using the target as a reference point by identifying a point where multiple waveform crossings are displayed simultaneously in an overlaid time base; and

displaying the protocol analysis data received from the monitoring interface of the transceiver together with the eye-diagram of the signal.

11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the target is identified by adding half the difference between the maximum signal sample and the minimum signal sample value to the minimum signal value.

12 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the eye-diagram is generated from the set of samples stored to memory.

13 . A method according to claim 10 , wherein the eye-diagram is generated by sampling the signal using the target as a reference point when the signal is sampled to overlay the oscillations of the signal and generate the eye-diagram.

14 . A method according to claim 10 , wherein the signal sampling percentage is between about 90 percent and 99.99 percent or between about 100.01 percent and 110 percent.

15 . The method according to claim 10 , where the integer is between 1 and 100.

16 . The method according to claim 10 , where the signal represents a signal transmitted over a Fibre Channel link or an Ethernet link.

17 . The method according to claim 10 , where the signal represents a signal transmitted at a rate between about 1 Gigabyte per second and 10 Gigabytes per second.

18 . The method for according to claim 10 , further comprising at least one of the acts of measuring jitter, measuring extinction ration, or performing a mask test.

19 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the network analyzer includes a network processor configured to receive the network data, a distribution module coupled to the network processor configured to receive the network data from the network processor, and a plurality of analysis processors each for performing analysis of specific portions of the network data.

20 . A system for displaying information describing a signal transmitted in the communication system, the system comprising:

a sampling device for sampling the signal;

a memory for storing a set of the samples;

a processor comprising:

computer executable instructions that cause the processor to identify a trigger by causing the computer to perform the following acts when executed:

query the set of samples stored in the memory to identify both a maximum sample value and a minimum sample value; and

identify the trigger by calculating a midpoint between the maximum sample value and the minimum sample value; and

generate an eye-diagram using the trigger point as a reference point;

computer executable instructions that cause a network analyzer to perform network protocol analysis of the data sample when executed; and

a network analyzer for generating and displaying the eye-diagram along with a result of network protocol analysis conducted by the network analyzer.