Understanding TCP throughput performance in TDM-PONs with sleep mode

Energy saving paradigm is a global issue, and the access network consumes a significant portion of entire network-energy consumption. In the literature survey, we can find several research outcomes presenting several ground breaking solutions to minimize energy consumption in access networks (e.g. TDM-PONs). One promising energy saving technique is sleep-mode which aims to put transceiver of an Optical Network Unit into sleep whenever possible. However, in this environment TCP experiences long round trip time causing reduction of TCP throughput significantly. In this paper, our simulation results obtained through OPNET simulator show how sleep interval length can influence TCP throughput in a TDM-PON.