Investigation of the DBA Algorithm Design Space for EPONs

The implications of the main components of dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms in ethernet passive optical networks, namely grant scheduling framework, grant sizing, and grant scheduling, have to date been examined in isolation. In contrast, we conduct a comprehensive throughput-delay comparison study of the three main DBA components; whereby, for each of the DBA components, we consider a range of common mechanisms. Our comparison study considers a number of novel combinations of mechanisms for the individual DBA algorithms, such as the double-phase polling (DPP) scheduling framework combined with limited with excess distribution grant sizing, and shortest propagation delay (SPD) first scheduling. We find that this (DPP, Limited with excess, SPD) combination in conjunction with a novel excess sharing mechanism outperforms previously studied DBA algorithms.