Energy-efficient optical access networks: issues and technologies

This article discusses and clarifies the issues and technologies for the next-generation energy efficient optical access network from the viewpoints of its mid-term upgrade and long-term evolution. For reducing the total power consumption in the mid-term upgrade to 10-gigabit access, it is necessary to optimize the network configuration as well as the usage of various technologies while avoiding any service degradation in the next-generation broadband services. In the long-term evolution, wavelength routing will play a key role by drastically decreasing the total power consumption of the access network.