Enhancing end-user bandwidth using content sharing over optical access networks

A steady increase in the consumption of bandwidth-hungry Internet services (e.g., on-demand content) has resulted in a simultaneous increase of the end-user bandwidth demand. Moreover, the growing bandwidth demand is foreseen to immensely pressurize content delivery networks (CDNs) in the near future. CDNs stream these services through the core network on a per-user basis. Hence, the bandwidth consumed by a CDN increases when content is requested by multiple users. In this paper, we propose optical access network (OAN) architectures and associated media access control protocols that enhance the end-user bandwidth by facilitating supervised sharing of content among end users with security. This is an attractive solution for OANs, which otherwise require technology upgrade and redeployment of fiber infrastructure for enhancing the end-user bandwidth. The proposed schemes provide bandwidth benefits in the access network which are simultaneously observed at the metro and core network levels. In comparison, competent technologies like caching and P2P solutions provide bandwidth benefits at the metro and core network levels only, and do not enhance the enduser bandwidth. Analytical models are derived for the schemes proposed in this paper, as well as the caching and CDN solutions, in order to compare bandwidth benefits. Validation of the analytical models is performed using simulations.