MPCP design in prototyping optical network unit of ethernet in the first mile

Optical network unit (ONU) and optical line terminal (OLT) are two basic device elements in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). To support an optical multi-point network, the multi-point control protocol (MPCP) is being standardized in the IEEE 802.3ah task force (Ethernet in the first mile -EFM) by defining a multi-point MAC control sublayer as an extension of the existing MAC control sublayer (2003). In this paper, the design and implementation of MPCP as part of ONU prototyping for EFM are described. The design is undertaken on a platform integrated with an ARM processor and FPGA. The discussions focus on methods to improve operation efficiency and hardware/firmware co-design with a well-defined interface