A system includes an optical transmitter including a transmitter Phase Lock Loop (PLL) circuit; an optical receiver connected to the optical transmitter and including a receiver PLL circuit; and circuitry configured to inject a test stimulus to a clock causing jitter in one of the transmitter PLL circuitry and the receiver PLL circuit, wherein the test stimulus is set for characterizing the jitter tolerance of optical receiver. As well, a circuit that injects SOP transient at the transmitter is included. It is configured to test the tolerance of optical receiver to handle fast change in the SOP state. The optical receiver is configured to determine if the system is operational at a jitter value due to the test stimulus based on compliance to one or more thresholds including any of a target Bit Error Rate, a Forward-Error-Correction (FEC) hit, and a jitter Root Mean Square (RMS).