The noise properties of phase-insensitive and phase-sensitive optical transmission links are described in detail, for Gaussian input signals. Formulas are derived for the quadrature covariance matrices of the output signals, which allow one to quantify the noise figures of the links and the fidelities of transmission. Another formula is derived, which relates the density operator of an output signal, in the number-state representation, to its covariance matrix. This density matrix allows one to quantify the decrease in coherence and changes in photon-number probabilities associated with transmission. Based on the aforementioned performance metrics, links with distributed phase-sensitive amplification perform significantly better than other links.