Resource management research in ethernet passive optical networks

The last decades, we have witnessed different phenomenology in the telecommunications sector. One of them is the widespread use of the Internet, which has brought a sharp increase in traffic, forcing suppliers to continuously expand the capacity of networks. In the near future, Internet will be composed of long-range highspeed optical networks; a number of wireless networks at the edge; and, in between, several access technologies. Today one of the main problems of the Internet is the bottleneck in the access segment. To address this issue the Passive Optical Networks (PONs) are very likely to succeed, due to their simplicity, low-cost, and increased bandwidth. A PON is made up of fiber optic cabling and passive splitters and couplers that distribute an optical signal to connectors that terminate each fiber segment. Among the different PON technologies, the Ethernet-PON (EPON) is a great alternative to satisfy operator and user needs, due to its cost, flexibility and interoperability with other technologies. One of the most interesting challenges in such technologies relates to the scheduling and allocation of resources in the upstream (shared) channel, i.e., the resource management. The aim of this thesis is to study and evaluate current contributions and propose new efficient solutions to address the resource management issues mainly in EPON. Key issues in this context are future end-user needs, quality of service (QoS) support, energy-saving and optimized service provisioning for real-time and elastic flows. This thesis also identifies research opportunities, issue recommendations and proposes novel mechanisms associated with access networks based on optical fiber technologies.Postprint (published version

Energy Efficiency and Differentiated QoS in Next Generation PONs

Energy conservation in next generation Passive Optical Network system (NG-PON) has gained more and more attention. NG-PON system can not only deliver best-effort data traffic, but also real-time data traffic, e.g. voice and video, that have strict bandwidth, delay, and jitter requirements. To meet the energy and service requirements, a NG-PON system must have energy efficiency and differentiated QoS mechanism built in. Few research efforts have been reported on maximizing energy efficiency while maintaining QoS in the fairly new PON system design. We have extended the Upstream Centric Scheme (UCS-based) scheduling scheme idea into a novel QoS-differentiated energy-efficient PON system consisting of two main modules: firstly, the proposed differentiated QoS analytical model is described in detail to reduce the packet delay in the upstream traffic scheduling. The simulations further demonstrate the QoS metrics of the system: packet delay, bandwidth utilization, dropped packet rate, and queue length. Secondly, a novel analysis is proposed for downstream traffic scheduling with limited service discipline at Optical Line Terminal (OLT) side under the UCS-based Green Bandwidth Allocation (GBA) framework. We, first, derive the mean packet delay expression of this model. Then, the sleep time for each Optical Network Unit (ONU) is derived by setting identical upstream/downstream transmission cycle time. Based on the analytical model, an approach is developed to save the maximum energy in a dynamic PON system while without violating the delay requirement. Moreover, simulation is conducted to verify the developed analytical model and the proposed approach. In the end, considering the differentiated QoS and downstream traffic scheduling, an algorithm of the energy efficient scheduling scheme is proposed as well under the UCS-based GBA

Determination of optimized sleep interval for 10 gigabit-passive optical network using learning intelligence

The overall aim of this project is to investigate the application of a machine learning method in finding the optimized length of asleep time interval (TAS) in a cyclic sleep mechanism (CSM). Since past decade, the implementations of CSM in the optical network unit (ONU) to reduce the energy consumption in 10 gigabit-passive optical network (XG-PON) were extensively researched. However, the newest era sees the emergence of various network traffic with stringent demands that require further improvements on the TAS selection. Since conventional methods utilize complex algorithm, this paper presents the employment of an artificial neural network (ANN) to facilitate ONU to determine the optimized TAS values using learning from past experiences. Prior to simulation, theoretical analysis was done using the M/G/1 queueing system. The ANN was than trained and tested for the XG-PON network for optimal TAS decisions. Results have shown that towards higher network load, a decreasing TAS trend was observed from both methods. A wider TAS range was recorded from the ANN network as compared to the theoretical values. Therefore, these findings will benefit the network operators to have a flexibility measure in determining the optimal TAS values at current network conditions

Design and Performance Analysis of Functional Split in Virtualized Access Networks

abstract: Emerging modular cable network architectures distribute some cable headend functions to remote nodes that are located close to the broadcast cable links reaching the cable modems (CMs) in the subscriber homes and businesses. In the Remote- PHY (R-PHY) architecture, a Remote PHY Device (RPD) conducts the physical layer processing for the analog cable transmissions, while the headend runs the DOCSIS medium access control (MAC) for the upstream transmissions of the distributed CMs over the shared cable link. In contrast, in the Remote MACPHY (R-MACPHY) ar- chitecture, a Remote MACPHY Device (RMD) conducts both the physical and MAC layer processing. The dissertation objective is to conduct a comprehensive perfor- mance comparison of the R-PHY and R-MACPHY architectures. Also, development of analytical delay models for the polling-based MAC with Gated bandwidth alloca- tion of Poisson traffic in the R-PHY and R-MACPHY architectures and conducting extensive simulations to assess the accuracy of the analytical model and to evaluate the delay-throughput performance of the R-PHY and R-MACPHY architectures for a wide range of deployment and operating scenarios. Performance evaluations ex- tend to the use of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) as transport network between remote nodes and headend. The results show that for long CIN distances above 100 miles, the R-MACPHY architecture achieves significantly shorter mean up- stream packet delays than the R-PHY architecture, especially for bursty traffic. The extensive comparative R-PHY and R-MACPHY comparative evaluation can serve as a basis for the planning of modular broadcast cable based access networks.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

Contributions towards softwarization and energy saving in passive optical networks

Ths thesis is a result of contributions to optimize and improve the network management systme and power consumption in Passive Optical Network (PON). Passive Optical Network elements such as Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Units (ONUs) are currently managed by inflexible legacy network management systems. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm that improves the operation and management of networks by decoupling control plane from data plane. Currently, network management in PON networks is not always automated nor normalized. One goal of the researchers in optical networking is to improve the programmability, efficiency, and global optimization of network operations, in order to minimize both Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX) by reducing the complexity of devices and its operation. Therefore, it makes sense to use an SDN approach in order to manage the passive optical network functionalities and migrating must of the upper layer functions to the SDN controller. Many approaches have already addressed the topic of applying the SDN architecture in PON networks. However; the focus was usually on facilitating the deployment of SDN-based service and so Service Interoperability remains unexplored in detail. The main challenge toward this goal is how to make compatible the synchronous nature of the EPON media access control protocols with the asynchronous architecture of SDN, and in particular, OpenFlow. In our proposed architecture, the OLT is partially virtualized and some of its functionalities are allocated to the core network management system, while the OLT itself is replaced by an OpenFlow switch. A new MultiPoint MAC Control (MPMC) sublayer extension based on the OpenFlow protocol is presented. The OpenFlow switch is extended with synchronous ports to retain the time-critical nature of the EPON network. Our simulation-based results demonstrate the effectiveness of the new architecture, while retaining a similar (or improved) performance in term of delay and throughput when compared to legacy PONs. Nowadays, many researchers are working simultaneously to develop power saving techniques and improves energy efficiency in the PON network, and since the contribution of access networks to the global energy consumption is large, energy efficiency has become an increasingly important requirement in designing access networks. Therefore, energy-saving approaches are being investigated to provide high performance and consume less energy. Several techniques have been proposed to increase energy efficiency in PON networks. Such techniques are related to the centeralized DBA but the advantage of power saving in a distributed DBA remains untouched. We present a distributed energy-efficient Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) algorithm for both the upstream and downstream channels of EPON to improve energy efficiency in EPON networks. The proposed algorithm analyzes the queue status of the ONUs and OLT in order to power-off the transmitter and/or receiver of an ONU whenever there is no upstream or downstream traffic. We have been able to combine the advantage of a distributed DBA such as DDSPON (a smaller packet delay, due to the shorter time needed by DDSPON to allocate the transmission slots) and the energy-saving features (that come at a price of longer packet delays due to the fact that switching off the transmitters make the packet queues grow). Our proposed DBA algorithm minimizes the ONU energy consumption across a wide range of network loads, while maintaining at an acceptable level the penalty introduced in terms of channel utilization and packet delay.Las contribuciones de esta tesis se centran en mejorar el sistema de gestión de red y el consumo de energía en redes de acceso ópticas pasivas (PON). Los elementos de las redes PON, como el terminal de línea óptica (OLT) y las unidades de red ópticas (ONU), se gestionan actualmente mediante sistemas poco flexibles. El nuevo paradigma de redes definidas por software (SDN) mejora la gestión de redes al desacoplar el plano de control del plano de datos. Actualmente, la gestión de redes PON no está automatizada ni normalizada. Uno de los objetivos de los investigadores en redes ópticas es mejorar la programabilidad, la eficiencia y la optimización global de las operaciones de red, con el fin de minimizar tanto el gasto de capital (CAPEX) como el gasto operativo (OPEX) al reducir la complejidad de los dispositivos y su funcionamiento. Por lo tanto, tiene sentido utilizar un enfoque SDN para gestionar las funciones de red óptica pasiva y migrar algunas de las funciones PON de capas superiores al controlador SDN. Otros investigadores han estudiado esta aproximación. sin embargo; el enfoque generalmente estaba en facilitar la implementación del servicio basado en SDN y, por lo tanto, la interoperabilidad de los servicios permanecía sin ser explorado en detalle. El principal desafío hacia este objetivo es cómo compatibilizar la naturaleza síncrona de los protocolos de control de acceso a medios EPON con la arquitectura asíncrona de SDN y, en particular, OpenFlow. En nuestra propuesta de arquitectura, la OLT se virtualiza parcialmente y algunas de sus funcionalidades se asignan al sistema de gestión de red centralizado, mientras que la OLT se reemplaza por un conmutador OpenFlow. Proponemos una nueva extensión de la subcapa de control múltiple de MAC (MPMC) basada en el protocolo OpenFlow. El conmutador OpenFlow se amplía con puertos síncronos para asegurar la naturaleza de tiempo real de la red EPON. Nuestros resultados basados ¿¿en simulaciones demuestran la efectividad de la nueva arquitectura, al tiempo que se mantiene un rendimiento similar (o mejorado) en términos de retardos y rendimiento en comparación con las PON clásicas. Por otro lado, se están desarrollando técnicas de ahorro de energía y mejora de la eficiencia energética en redes PON, y dado que la contribución de las redes de acceso al consumo total de energía es importante, la eficiencia energética se ha convertido en un requisito cada vez más importante. Se han propuesto varias técnicas por parte de otros autores para aumentar la eficiencia energética en las redes PON, relacionadas con algoritmos DBA (Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation) centralizados, pero las ventaja del ahorro de energía en un DBA distribuido no se ha explorado todavía. Por ello nuestra segunda contiribución es un algoritmo distribuido de asignación dinámica de ancho de banda energéticamente eficiente tanto para los canales ascendentes como descendentes de EPON para mejorar la eficiencia energética en las redes EPON. El algoritmo propuesto analiza el estado de cola de las ONU y la OLT para apagar el transmisor y/o el receptor de una ONU cuando no hay tráfico en sentido ascendente o descendente. Hemos podido combinar la ventaja de un DBA distribuido como DDSPON (que asegura retardos más pequeños, debido al menor tiempo que DDSPON necesita para asignar las ranuras de transmisión) y las características de ahorro de energía (al precio de tener retardos de paquete más grandes debido al hecho de que apagar los transmisores hace que las colas de paquetes crezcan). Nuestro algoritmo de DBA propuesto minimiza el consumo de energía de la ONU en una amplia gama de cargas de red, mientras mantiene a un nivel aceptable la penalización introducida en términos de utilización del canal y retardos

Contributions towards softwarization and energy saving in passive optical networks

Ths thesis is a result of contributions to optimize and improve the network management systme and power consumption in Passive Optical Network (PON). Passive Optical Network elements such as Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Units (ONUs) are currently managed by inflexible legacy network management systems. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm that improves the operation and management of networks by decoupling control plane from data plane. Currently, network management in PON networks is not always automated nor normalized. One goal of the researchers in optical networking is to improve the programmability, efficiency, and global optimization of network operations, in order to minimize both Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX) by reducing the complexity of devices and its operation. Therefore, it makes sense to use an SDN approach in order to manage the passive optical network functionalities and migrating must of the upper layer functions to the SDN controller. Many approaches have already addressed the topic of applying the SDN architecture in PON networks. However; the focus was usually on facilitating the deployment of SDN-based service and so Service Interoperability remains unexplored in detail. The main challenge toward this goal is how to make compatible the synchronous nature of the EPON media access control protocols with the asynchronous architecture of SDN, and in particular, OpenFlow. In our proposed architecture, the OLT is partially virtualized and some of its functionalities are allocated to the core network management system, while the OLT itself is replaced by an OpenFlow switch. A new MultiPoint MAC Control (MPMC) sublayer extension based on the OpenFlow protocol is presented. The OpenFlow switch is extended with synchronous ports to retain the time-critical nature of the EPON network. Our simulation-based results demonstrate the effectiveness of the new architecture, while retaining a similar (or improved) performance in term of delay and throughput when compared to legacy PONs. Nowadays, many researchers are working simultaneously to develop power saving techniques and improves energy efficiency in the PON network, and since the contribution of access networks to the global energy consumption is large, energy efficiency has become an increasingly important requirement in designing access networks. Therefore, energy-saving approaches are being investigated to provide high performance and consume less energy. Several techniques have been proposed to increase energy efficiency in PON networks. Such techniques are related to the centeralized DBA but the advantage of power saving in a distributed DBA remains untouched. We present a distributed energy-efficient Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) algorithm for both the upstream and downstream channels of EPON to improve energy efficiency in EPON networks. The proposed algorithm analyzes the queue status of the ONUs and OLT in order to power-off the transmitter and/or receiver of an ONU whenever there is no upstream or downstream traffic. We have been able to combine the advantage of a distributed DBA such as DDSPON (a smaller packet delay, due to the shorter time needed by DDSPON to allocate the transmission slots) and the energy-saving features (that come at a price of longer packet delays due to the fact that switching off the transmitters make the packet queues grow). Our proposed DBA algorithm minimizes the ONU energy consumption across a wide range of network loads, while maintaining at an acceptable level the penalty introduced in terms of channel utilization and packet delay.Las contribuciones de esta tesis se centran en mejorar el sistema de gestión de red y el consumo de energía en redes de acceso ópticas pasivas (PON). Los elementos de las redes PON, como el terminal de línea óptica (OLT) y las unidades de red ópticas (ONU), se gestionan actualmente mediante sistemas poco flexibles. El nuevo paradigma de redes definidas por software (SDN) mejora la gestión de redes al desacoplar el plano de control del plano de datos. Actualmente, la gestión de redes PON no está automatizada ni normalizada. Uno de los objetivos de los investigadores en redes ópticas es mejorar la programabilidad, la eficiencia y la optimización global de las operaciones de red, con el fin de minimizar tanto el gasto de capital (CAPEX) como el gasto operativo (OPEX) al reducir la complejidad de los dispositivos y su funcionamiento. Por lo tanto, tiene sentido utilizar un enfoque SDN para gestionar las funciones de red óptica pasiva y migrar algunas de las funciones PON de capas superiores al controlador SDN. Otros investigadores han estudiado esta aproximación. sin embargo; el enfoque generalmente estaba en facilitar la implementación del servicio basado en SDN y, por lo tanto, la interoperabilidad de los servicios permanecía sin ser explorado en detalle. El principal desafío hacia este objetivo es cómo compatibilizar la naturaleza síncrona de los protocolos de control de acceso a medios EPON con la arquitectura asíncrona de SDN y, en particular, OpenFlow. En nuestra propuesta de arquitectura, la OLT se virtualiza parcialmente y algunas de sus funcionalidades se asignan al sistema de gestión de red centralizado, mientras que la OLT se reemplaza por un conmutador OpenFlow. Proponemos una nueva extensión de la subcapa de control múltiple de MAC (MPMC) basada en el protocolo OpenFlow. El conmutador OpenFlow se amplía con puertos síncronos para asegurar la naturaleza de tiempo real de la red EPON. Nuestros resultados basados ¿¿en simulaciones demuestran la efectividad de la nueva arquitectura, al tiempo que se mantiene un rendimiento similar (o mejorado) en términos de retardos y rendimiento en comparación con las PON clásicas. Por otro lado, se están desarrollando técnicas de ahorro de energía y mejora de la eficiencia energética en redes PON, y dado que la contribución de las redes de acceso al consumo total de energía es importante, la eficiencia energética se ha convertido en un requisito cada vez más importante. Se han propuesto varias técnicas por parte de otros autores para aumentar la eficiencia energética en las redes PON, relacionadas con algoritmos DBA (Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation) centralizados, pero las ventaja del ahorro de energía en un DBA distribuido no se ha explorado todavía. Por ello nuestra segunda contiribución es un algoritmo distribuido de asignación dinámica de ancho de banda energéticamente eficiente tanto para los canales ascendentes como descendentes de EPON para mejorar la eficiencia energética en las redes EPON. El algoritmo propuesto analiza el estado de cola de las ONU y la OLT para apagar el transmisor y/o el receptor de una ONU cuando no hay tráfico en sentido ascendente o descendente. Hemos podido combinar la ventaja de un DBA distribuido como DDSPON (que asegura retardos más pequeños, debido al menor tiempo que DDSPON necesita para asignar las ranuras de transmisión) y las características de ahorro de energía (al precio de tener retardos de paquete más grandes debido al hecho de que apagar los transmisores hace que las colas de paquetes crezcan). Nuestro algoritmo de DBA propuesto minimiza el consumo de energía de la ONU en una amplia gama de cargas de red, mientras mantiene a un nivel aceptable la penalización introducida en términos de utilización del canal y retardos.Postprint (published version