A link probe for multimode fibers in optical networks is provided. An optical test probe signal is sent over a multimode fiber of an optical network link and a receiver converts the optical signal into an electronic signal with a trigger generated by the clock recovery section of an EDC (electronic dispersion compensation) unit. The digital signal is processed by a modified IEEE algorithm to determine a TWDP (Transmitter and Waveform Dispersion Penalty) parameter which quantifies the transmission quality of the multimode fiber and link suitability to LRM transmission.