Architecture of multi-OLT PON systems and its bandwidth allocation algorithms

In this paper, we propose a novel passive optical network (PON) architecture that has multiple optical line terminals (OLTs). Unlike existing PONs where all ONUs are connected to a single OLT, the proposed multi-OLT PON allows subscribers to choose their own service providers from among multiple OLTs. Service companies and subscribers can make service level agreements (SLA) on the amount of bandwidth that each OLT or ONU requires. A new control protocol and bandwidth allocation algorithms appropriate in this new PON environments are suggested. For the downstream, a scheme to share the bandwidth among multiple OLTs is studied to maximize the total transmitted packets while guaranteeing each OLT’s SLA. A modified Limited Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation named mLimited scheme is also proposed for upstream transmission toward multiple OLTs, which maximizes the total upstream throughput while minimizing the delay of each ONU. Performances of the proposed PON architecture and algorithms are analyzed. A PON system with two OLTs and 16 ONUs is used in the analysis. Self-similar traffic reflecting current packet distribution is used in the packet generation. The results show that the proposed DBA schemes efficiently manage bandwidth even when the occurred traffic load is quite different from the reserved bandwidth. It is found that the proposed PON architecture is appropriate in supporting diverse services in future high-speed optical access network.     

SUCCESS: a next-generation hybrid WDM/TDM optical access network architecture

In this paper, the authors propose a next-generation hybrid WDM/TDM optical access network architecture called Stanford University aCCESS or SUCCESS. This architecture provides practical migration steps from current-generation time-division multiplexing (TDM)-passive optical network (PONs) to future WDM optical access networks. The architecture is backward compatible for users on existing TDM-PONs, while simultaneously capable of providing upgraded high-bandwidth services to new users on DWDM-PONs through advanced WDM techniques. The SUCCESS architecture is based on a collector ring and several distribution stars connecting the CO and the users. A semipassive configuration of the Remote Nodes (RNs) enables protection and restoration, making the network resilient to power failures. A novel design of the OLT and DWDM-PON ONUs minimizes the system cost considerably: 1) tunable lasers and receivers at the OLT are shared by all ONUs on the network to reduce the transceiver count and 2) the fast tunable lasers not only generate downstream data traffic but also provide DWDM-PON ONUs with optical CW bursts for their upstream data transmission. Results from an experimental system testbed support the feasibility of the proposed SUCCESS architecture. Also, simulation results of the first SUCCESS DWDM-PON MAC protocol verify that it can efficiently provide bidirectional transmission between the OLT and ONUs over multiple wavelengths with a small number of tunable transmitters and receivers.     

A dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme for differentiated services in EPONs

Passive optical networks bring high-speed broadband access via fiber to the business, curb and home. Among various types of PONs, Ethernet PONs are gaining more and more attention since they are built on widely used Ethernet technology and can offer high bandwidth, low cost and broad services. EPONs use a point-to-multipoint topology, in which multiple optical network units share one uplink channel to transmit multimedia traffic to a control element, the optical line terminal. To avoid data collision on the shared uplink channel, a key issue in EPONs is a contention-free MAC protocol for the OLT to schedule the transmission order of different ONUs. In this article we first review some DBA schemes available in the literature, then propose a two-layer bandwidth allocation scheme that implements weight based priority for this need. To maximally satisfy the requests of all ONUs and provide differentiated services, an ONU is allowed to request bandwidth for all its available traffic, and all traffic classes proportionally share the bandwidth based on their instantaneous demands. The weight set for each class not only prevents high-priority traffic from monopolizing the bandwidth under heavy load but also ensures a minimum bandwidth allocated to each traffic class.     

A novel medium access control protocol for passive optical network supporting local area networking capabilities

An alternate solution for Ethernet passive optical networks (EPON) providing local area networking (LAN) capabilities is proposed in this article. Our solution adopts a star coupler-based PON architecture and uses radio frequency subcarrier multiplexed transmission for the LAN traffic delivery. The proposed medium access control (MAC) protocol supports a fully distributed control plane among the optical network units (ONUs) for ONU–ONU communication as well as upstream access to the OLT. The simulation results indicate that the proposed MAC protocol outperforms the others in terms of the average packet end-to-end delay, especially for LAN traffic.     

Media access control for Ethernet passive optical networks: an overview

Medium access control is one of the crucial issues in the design of Ethernet passive optical networks. To ensure efficient transmission, an EPON system must employ a MAC mechanism to arbitrate access to the shared medium in order to avoid data collisions in the upstream direction and at the same time efficiently share the upstream transmission bandwidth among all ONUs. The purpose of this article is to provide a good understanding of the MAC issue, discuss the major problems involved (e.g., multiple access, bandwidth allocation, transmission scheduling, and quality of service support), and present an overview of the state-of-the-art solutions proposed thus far to the problems. It is also our purpose to motivate further studies on the problems described in this article     

SUCCESS-HPON: A next-generation optical access architecture for smooth migration from TDM-PON to WDM-PON

Optical access networks are considered to be a definite solution to the problem of upgrading current congested access networks to ones capable of delivering future broadband integrated services. However, the high deployment and maintenance cost of traditional point-to-point architectures is a major economic barrier. Current TDM-PON architectures are economically feasible, but bandwidth-limited. In this article we first discuss the possible role of WDM in access networks and investigate the associated issues. We then present the Stanford University Access Hybrid WDM/TDM Passive Optical Network (SUCCESS-HPON), a next-generation hybrid WDM/TDM optical access architecture that focuses on providing a smooth migration path from current TDM-PONs to future WDM-PONs. The first testbed for this architecture is described, along with the experimental results obtained, including feasibility of bidirectional transmission on the same wavelength on the same fiber for access networks and ONU modulation of upstream data on continuous waves provided by the OLT, eliminating the need for tunable components at the ONUs. The development of a second testbed and the issues it will address, including the implementability of the SUCCESS-HPON MAC protocol and scheduling algorithms, are also described.     

一种APON上行带宽分配方案

文中介绍了APOW（ATM无源光网络）,在此基础上提出了APON上行带宽动态分配的一种方案--“最小分配”方案：即光线路终端（OLT）在分配上行带宽时,首先满足各光网络单元（ONU）的基本带宽需求,以保证电话等实时业务的传输;同时又以特定的算法使ONU中的上行发送缓冲队列最短。最后,使用仿真手段对本方案与“平均分配”方案进行了性能比较。“最小分配”方案的平均信元接入时延、ONU上发缓冲区尺寸、上行带宽使用效率和信元丢失率等性能指标均优于“平均分配”方案。     

一种新的基于GPON的动态带宽分配算法

为了实现吉比特无源光网络(GPON)带宽分配的公平性,降低网络的丢包率及传输延时,文章研究了GPON系统传输汇聚层的帧结构及动态带宽分配的实现方法,提出了一种新的动态带宽分配(DBA)算法--基于QoS的二层动态带宽分配算法.基本思路是根据不同等级业务的带宽需求,在PON层和ONU层分别进行带宽的合理分配.理论分析和仿真试验证明,这种算法可以提高带宽的利用率,保证不同业务的不同时延要求,并且对不同用户和不同等级的业务都具有很好的公平性.     

PRNN/ERLS-based predictive QoS-promoted DBA scheme for upstream transmission in EPON

This article proposes a PRNN/ERLS-based predictive QoS-promoted dynamic bandwidth allocation (PQ-DBA) scheme for upstream transmission in Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) systems. The proposed PQ-DBA scheme originally divides incoming packets of voice, video, data service traffic into six priorities, where packets having less room before QoS requirements violation or being in starvation situation will be dynamically promoted to high priority cycle-by-cycle. It predicts packets arriving at prediction interval for ONUs using pipeline recurrent neural network (PRNN)/extended recursive least squares (ERLS) so that the bandwidth allocation can be more up-to-date and then accurate. Simulation results show that the proposed PQ-DBA scheme achieves higher system utilization and lower average voice, video, data packet delay time than the DBAM scheme [Luo and Ansari, OSA J Opt Netw 4(9):561–572] by 4, and 21, 90, 43%, respectively, and the PQ-DBA scheme but without prediction by 2, and 26, 29, 34%, respectively.     

An All-Optical Access-Metro Interface for Hybrid WDM/TDM PON Based on OBS

A new all-optical access-metro network interface based on optical burst switching (OBS) is proposed. A hybrid wavelength-division multiplexing/time-division multiplexing (WDM/TDM) access architecture with reflective optical network units (ONUs), an arrayed-waveguide-grating outside plant, and a tunable laser stack at the optical line terminal (OLT) is presented as a solution for the passive optical network. By means of OBS and a dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) protocol, which polls the ONUs, the available access bandwidth is managed. All the network intelligence and costly equipment is located at the OLT, where the DBA module is centrally implemented, providing quality of service (QoS). To scale this access network, an optical cross connect (OXC) is then used to attain a large number of ONUs by the same OLT. The hybrid WDM/TDM structure is also extended toward the metropolitan area network (MAN) by introducing the concept of OBS multiplexer (OBS-M). The network element OBS-M bridges the MAN and access networks by offering all-optical cross connection, wavelength conversion, and data signaling. The proposed innovative OBS-M node yields a full optical data network, interfacing access and metro with a geographically distributed access control. The resulting novel access-metro architectures are nonblocking and, with an improved signaling, provide QoS, scalability, and very low latency. Finally, numerical analysis and simulations demonstrate the traffic performance of the proposed access scheme and all-optical access-metro interface and architectures     

Analysis of delay mean and variance of collision-free WDM rings with segment recirculation of blocked traffic

In Tunable-Transmitter Fixed-Receiver (TT-FR)-based Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) ring topologies, each node is provided with a dedicated wavelength (home channel) for reception, which must be shared by the upstream nodes willing to communicate with it. Thus, to avoid channel collisions, it is necessary to define a Medium Access Control (MAC) mechanism that arbitrates access to a given destination wavelength. This work proposes and analyses a simple MAC mechanism that avoids channel collisions by recirculating traffic on the upstream ring segment where congestion was detected. Essentially, whenever a given node has got any traffic to transmit, it must first block access to in-transit traffic, which is reflected back to the upstream node over a second optical fibre. Such blocked traffic is given a second chance to pass through the congested node after a round segment delay, thus making use of the ring topology as buffering units. This work analyses the performance operation of such a MAC protocol under two policies applied to recirculated traffic: (1) recirculation bypass and (2) recirculation store-and-forward.     

OSLG: A new granting scheme in WDM Ethernet passive optical networks

Several granting schemes have been proposed to grant transmission window and dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) in passive optical networks (PON). Generally, granting schemes suffer from bandwidth wastage of granted windows. Here, we propose a new granting scheme for WDM Ethernet PONs, called optical network unit (ONU) Side Limited Granting (OSLG) that conserves upstream bandwidth, thus resulting in decreasing queuing delay and packet drop ratio. In OSLG instead of optical line terminal (OLT), each ONU determines its transmission window. Two OSLG algorithms are proposed in this paper: the OSLG_GA algorithm that determines the size of its transmission window in such a way that the bandwidth wastage problem is relieved, and the OSLG_SC algorithm that saves unused bandwidth for more bandwidth utilization later on. The OSLG can be used as granting scheme of any DBA to provide better performance in the terms of packet drop ratio and queuing delay. Our performance evaluations show the effectiveness of OSLG in reducing packet drop ratio and queuing delay under different DBA techniques.     

Inter‐ONU Bandwidth Scheduling by Using Threshold Reporting and Adaptive Polling for QoS in EPONs

I dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) scheme, an inter–optical network unit (ONU) bandwidth scheduling, is presented to provide quality of service (QoS) to different classes of packets in Ethernet passive optical networks (EPONs). This scheme, referred to as TADBA, is based on efficient threshold reporting from, and adaptive polling order rearranging of, ONUs. It has been shown that the network resources are efficiently allocated among the three traffic classes by guaranteeing the requested QoS, adaptively rearranging the polling orders, and avoiding nearly all fragmentation losses. Simulation results using an OPNET network simulator show that TADBA performs well in comparison to the available allocation scheme for the given parameters, such as packet delay and channel utilization.     

Genetic expression programming: a new approach for QoS traffic prediction in EPONs

The Ethernet passive optical network is being regarded as the most promising for next-generation optical access solutions in the access networks. In time division multiplexing, passive optical network technology (TDM-PON) and the dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) play a crucial key role to achieve efficient bandwidth allocation and fairness among subscribers. Therefore, the traffic prediction in DBA during the waiting time must be put into the account. In this paper, we propose a new prediction approach with an evolutionary algorithm genetic expression programming (GEP) prediction incorporated with Limited IPACT referred as GLI-DBA to tackle the queue variation during waiting times as well as to reduce the high-priority packet delay. Simulation results show that the GEP prediction in DBA can reduce the expedited forwarding (EF) packet delay, shorten the EF queue length, enhance the quality of services and maintain the fairness among the optical network units (ONUs). We conducted and evaluated the detail simulation in two different scenarios with distinctive traffic proportion. Simulation results show that the GLI-DBA has EF packet delay improvement up to 30 % over dynamic bandwidth allocation for multiple of services (DBAM). It also shows that our proposed prediction scheme performs better than the DBAM when the number of ONUs increases.     

Efficient protocols for multimedia streams on WDMA networks

This paper introduces a new approach to integrate different types of medium access control (MAC) protocols into a single wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) network system. The WDM network is based on a passive star coupler, and the purpose of integrating different MAC protocols is to efficiently accommodate various types of multimedia traffic streams with different characteristics and quality of service demands. Our integrated MAC protocol is termed multimedia wavelength-division multiple-access (M-WDMA). Three types of multimedia traffic streams are considered in this paper: constant-bit-rate traffic and two classes of variable-bit-rate traffic. Accordingly, three tunable transmitters and one fixed home channel receiver are used in the design of each WDM node. The transmitters transmit the three types of multimedia traffic streams in a pipeline fashion so as to overcome the tuning time overhead and to support parallel transmissions of traffic streams that emerge simultaneously. We further incorporate a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme that dynamically adjusts the portions of bandwidth occupied by the three types of traffic streams according to their demands. Consequently the M-WDMA protocol achieves high utilization and efficiently adapts to the demands of the multimedia streams so as to guarantee their QoS. The performance of the M-WDMA is evaluated through a simple analytical model and extensive discrete-event simulations. It is shown that the M-WDMA can satisfy the QoS requirements of various mixes of multimedia traffic streams even under very stringent requirements. Moreover, we show that the M-WDMA outperforms conventional MAC protocols for WDM networks. As a result, we expect M-WDMA to be a good multimedia MAC candidate protocol for future-generation WDM networks.     

WRAP: a medium access control protocol for wavelength-routedpassive optical networks

We describe the WDM request/allocation protocol (WRAP), a media-access control protocol for wavelength-routed passive optical networks (WR-PONs) in which each node has a single fixed optical receiver and a single tunable optical transmitter. The protocol does not require a carrier sensing capability, a separate control channel, or any centralized control or scheduling. Access to transmission channels is regulated by allocations made at destination nodes in response to requests made by source nodes. Computer simulation is used to investigate three different allocation algorithms, one of which-the preferential/random algorithm-is shown to provide significantly better performance than the alternatives. Simulations are presented comparing the performance of WRAP to two previously proposed applicable protocols-the interleaved time division multiple access (I-TDMA) protocol, and the FatMAC protocol. WRAP is shown to provide fair and flexible access to the transmission capacity, enabling high network utilization to be achieved under a wide range of traffic conditions, while providing a guaranteed minimum bandwidth between each source-destination pair. We conclude that of the three protocols considered here, WRAP is the best-suited to general-purpose data communications applications such as local, campus, and metropolitan area networks     

EPON中上行时隙的动态分配

根据以太网数据包具有变长性的特点,描述了在以太网无源光网络(Ethernet Passive Optical Network,EPON)系统中局端光线路终端(Optical Line Terminal,OLT)根据终端用户的实际需求,动态分配给各个光网络单元(Optical Network Unit,ONU)上行时隙。动态时隙的分配能充分利用上行信道,大大减少了因为变长数据包不能完全适合固定时隙而带来的带宽浪费。     

A survey of dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks

Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) has been widely considered as a promising technology for implementing the FTTx solutions to the “last mile” bandwidth bottleneck problem. Bandwidth allocation is one of the critical issues in the design of EPON systems. In an EPON system, multiple optical network units (ONUs) share a common upstream channel for data transmission. To efficiently utilize the limited bandwidth of the upstream channel, an EPON system must dynamically allocate the upstream bandwidth among multiple ONUs based on the instantaneous bandwidth demands and quality of service requirements of end users. This paper introduces the fundamental concepts on EPONs, discusses the major issues related to bandwidth allocation in EPON systems, and presents a survey of the state-of-the-art dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms for EPONs.     

Grant-sizing-differentiated bandwidth allocation algorithm for the coexistence of ONUs with and without wavelength tunability in WDM/TDM PONs

Adopting the pay-as-you-grow approach to upgrade passive optical network (PON) facilities by WDM technology insures the smoothness of the upgrade, and also results in the coexistence of wavelength-fixed/tunable optical network units (ONUs) in WDM/TDM PONs. Dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) is the key to support such coexistence of heterogeneous ONUs. Thus, DBA is also the key to support the smooth evolution of PONs. To more fairly coordinate the bandwidth allocation among the coexisting heterogeneous ONUs, a differentiated grant sizing (DGS) scheme is proposed. In DGS, not only the fairness between the wavelength-fixed/tunable ONUs but also the fairness between the lightly/heavily loaded ONUs is taken into account. To further carry out load balancing among wavelengths, a grant scheduling scheme is also proposed to cooperate with the grant sizing scheme. In the grant scheduling scheme, a measure of the ONUs’ flexibility is given, and then the least flexible job first rule (LFJF) is adopted for joint wavelength and time-slot assignment. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a series of comparative analyses is conducted based on simulation experiments.     

Sleep assistive dynamic bandwidth assignment scheme for passive optical network (PON)

In passive optical network (PON), in addition to efficient bandwidth management, a dynamic bandwidth assignment (DBA) scheme can also enhance the energy efficiency performance of the optical networks units (ONUs) during sleep mode. A few such green DBA schemes have been proposed in literature for EPON, however, ITU compliant PONs have not got attention. In this study, the role of a DBA scheme during the cyclic sleep mode for XGPON has been investigated. A sleep assistive (SA)-DBA scheme is proposed that not only improves the energy saving performance of cyclic sleep mode but also reduces the upstream delays and variance for all the type-2 (T2), type-3 (T3) and type-4 (T4) traffic classes. Although, the upstream delay of type-1 (T1) traffic class slightly increases, the average upstream delay of all the traffic classes remains below the set target delay limit of 56 ms.