OTACT: ONU Turning with Adaptive Cycle Times in Long-Reach PONs

Abstract With the expansion of PON networks as Long-Reach PON (LR-PON) networks, the problem of degrading the efficiency of centralized bandwidth allocation algorithms threatens this network due to high propagation delay. This is because these algorithms are based on bandwidth negotiation messages frequently exchanged between the optical line terminal (OLT) in the Central Office and optical network units (ONUs) near the users, which become seriously delayed when the network is extended. To solve this problem, some decentralized algorithms are proposed based on bandwidth negotiation messages frequently exchanged between the Remote Node (RN)/Local Exchange (LX) and ONUs near the users. The network has a relatively high delay since there are relatively large distances between RN/LX and ONUs, and therefore, control messages should travel twice between ONUs and RN/LX in order to go from one ONU to another ONU. In this paper, we propose a novel framework, called ONU Turning with Adaptive Cycle Times (OTACT), that uses Power Line Communication (PLC) to connect two adjacent ONUs. Since there is a large population density in urban areas, ONUs are closer to each other. Thus, the efficiency of the proposed method is high. We investigate the performance of the proposed scheme in contrast with other decentralized schemes under the worst case conditions. Simulation results show that the average upstream packet delay can be decreased under the proposed scheme.