Efficient protection schemes for hybrid WDM/TDM Passive Optical Networks

Hybrid WDM/TDM Passive Optical Network (PON) is a promising candidate for next-generation optical access (NGOA) solutions as it is able to offer a high splitting ratio and consequently achieves a relatively low cost and power consumption on a per-user basis compared with other NGOA architectures. On the other hand, the end users require a certain level of connection availability while the operators need to reduce the failure impact (i.e. to avoid a huge number of end users being affected by any single failure). Therefore, by evaluating the connection availability and failure impact robustness we identify the most efficient parts to provide resilience in a hybrid WDM/TDM PON from an operator and an end-user perspective. Then, we select the appropriate protection schemes to construct some novel reliable architectures and analyze their reliability performance in urban and rural scenarios. In this way, this paper provides a comprehensive insight into the most relevant protection mechanisms for hybrid WDM/TDM PONs.