Optical signal to noise ratios that more accurately characterize optical link noise are determined. As noise induced by an optical receiver does not generally vary with an input optical signal power, a power of an incoming optical signal is varied at the receiver. A resulting variation in noise measure represents a variation in link noise and does not include any variation caused by receiver noise, as receiver noise does not generally vary with optical signal power. Thus, the contribution of optical link noise can be discerned from other noise induced by the receiver itself. A more accurate characterization of optical link performance is thus provided.