2-6
Using the Instrument
Setting Up Measurements
Averaging Traces
Trace averaging improves your measurement repeatability by smoothing out
noise. For measurements involving slow polarization sc ra m b ling, using video
filtering to improve repeatability will require a very narrow v id eo bandwidth
(less than 10 Hz). This would result in a lo ng measurement time, where trace
averaging would be faster. Refer to “Averagi ng” on page 3-14.
1From the front panel, press Traces > Averaging.
2Toggle to select the Averaging on or off.
3Select from the 10, 20, 50 or 100 softkeys or use the knob, step keys, or numeric
entry pad to enter the desired average count.
Note For measurements with fast polarization scrambling, video filtering (adjusting
video bandwidth) is generally faster than tr ace averaging for similar
repeatability requirement.