Identification of the transmission characteristics of a communication path

An apparatus to determine characteristics of an optical communication path by utilizing electrical devices (111-115) in an electrical path in parallel with the optical communication path (116). Each electrical device is physically located with a passive or active optical device (103-106) and specifies the attenuation and delay of the optical device. A receiver (129) measures the electrical qualities of each electrical device in the electrical path which is parallel to the optical path from the optical transmitter. The electrical measurements allow the receiver to automatically adjust its optical receiver to the attenuation and delay introduced by the optical devices in the optical path.