Dynamic bandwidth allocation for long-reach PON: overcoming performance degradation

A passive optical network, with its inherent point to multi-point structure, allows for centralized placement of active equipment and possible extension of its boundary towards core networks. This property of the PON can be exploited for node consolidation where multiple central offices are replaced by a single one covering a larger service area. Such node consolidation is being particularly driven by the need for network operational cost saving, and is offering significant challenges to PONs. The degree of node consolidation that can be achieved is limited by the reach of conventional PON systems. In order to achieve a larger degree of node consolidation, an extension of the PON reach, beyond the conventional 20 km, is required. This article addresses the challenges of the dynamic bandwidth allocation, where increased reach results in a degradation of DBA performance and quality of service support. This degradation is a consequence of the increased propagation delay of the DBA messages exchanged between different PON elements. A potential solution to the performance degradation is the introduction of a multi-threaded DBA. In this article, we examine for both Gigabit PON and Ethernet PON, the extent to which DBA performance degradation can be reduced by exploiting multi-threading. It is found that for both standards, multi-threading, if done properly, can be used to mitigate the performance degradation due to the increased reach. To make bandwidth allocation efficient, new schemes for coordinating the multiple threads are required in long reach PON.