The Agilent 83433A is designed to produce high fidelity, low jitter waveforms for 2.488 Gb/s STM-16/OC-48, 9.953 Gb/s STM-64/OC-192 and other transmission rates up through 10.7 Gb/s. The Agilent 83433A is intended for BER testing with error performance analyzers such as the Agilent 71612B. The Mach-Zehnder modulator is adjusted for a fixed zero chirp. Its output waveform produces a minimum extinction ratio of 12 dB.

The internal DFB laser can be modulated at frequencies from 15 kHz to 10 MHz to increase linewidth for SBS suppression or channel identification applications. The internal laser wavelength can be adjusted ±1.25 nm around the 1552.52 center wavelength.

The Agilent 83433A can be combined with the Agilent 83434A 10 Gb/s lightwave receiver to create a complete optical link for system or fiber testing, or to form a basis for substitution testing of commercial transmitters and receivers.