Multichannel optical access networks : design and resource management

At present there is a strong worldwide push towards bringing fiber closer to individual homes and businesses. The next evolutionary step is the cost-effective all-optical integration of fiber-based access and metro networks. STARGATE [1] is an all-optical access-metro architecture which does not rely on costly active devices, e.g., Optical Cross-Connects (OXCs) or Fixed Wavelength Converters (FWCs), and allow low-cost PON technologies to follow low-cost Ethernet technologies from EPON access into metro networks, resulting in significantly reduced cost and complexity. It makes use of an overlay island of transparency with optical bypassing capabilities. In this thesis we first propose Optical Network Unit (ONU) architectures, and discuss several technical challenges, which allow STARGATE EPONs (SG-EPONs) to evolve in a pay-as-you-grow manner while providing backward compatibility with legacy infrastructure and protecting previous investment. Second, and considering all the hardware constraints, we present the corresponding dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm for effective resource management in these networks and investigate their performances (delay, throughput) through simulation experiments. We further investigate the problem of transmission grant scheduling in multichannel optical access networks using a scheduling theoretic approach. We show that the problem can be modeled as an Open Shop and we formulate the joint scheduling and wavelength assignment problem as a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MJLP) whose objective is to reduce the length of a scheduling period. Since the problem is known to be NP-hard, we introduce a Tabu Search based heuristic for solving the joint problem. Different other heuristics are also considered and their performances are compared with those of Tabu and MILP. Results indicate that by appropriately scheduling transmission grants and assigning wavelengths, substantial and consistent improvements may be obtained in the network performance. For example, Tabu shows a reduction of up to 29% in the schedule length with substantial reduction in channel idle gaps yielding to both higher channel utilization and lower queuing delays. Additionally, when the number of channels in the network is not small, the benefits of performing appropriate wavelength assignment, together with transmission scheduling, are observed and discussed. We further perform a packet-level simulation on the considered network to study the benefits of efficient grant scheduling; significant improvements are shown both in terms of system utilization and packet queuing delays

Upstream traffic capacity of a WDM EPON under online GATE-driven scheduling

Passive optical networks are increasingly used for access to the Internet and it is important to understand the performance of future long-reach, multi-channel variants. In this paper we discuss requirements on the dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm used to manage the upstream resource in a WDM EPON and propose a simple novel DBA algorithm that is considerably more efficient than classical approaches. We demonstrate that the algorithm emulates a multi-server polling system and derive capacity formulas that are valid for general traffic processes. We evaluate delay performance by simulation demonstrating the superiority of the proposed scheduler. The proposed scheduler offers considerable flexibility and is particularly efficient in long-reach access networks where propagation times are high

Optimization Methods for Optical Long-Haul and Access Networks

Optical communications based on fiber optics and the associated technologies have seen remarkable progress over the past two decades. Widespread deployment of optical fiber has been witnessed in backbone and metro networks as well as access segments connecting to customer premises and homes. Designing and developing a reliable, robust and efficient end-to-end optical communication system have thus emerged as topics of utmost importance both to researchers and network operators. To fulfill these requirements, various problems have surfaced and received attention, such as network planning, capacity placement, traffic grooming, traffic scheduling, and bandwidth allocation. The optimal network design aims at addressing (one or more of) these problems based on some optimization objectives. In this thesis, we consider two of the most important problems in optical networks; namely the survivability in optical long-haul networks and the problem of bandwidth allocation and scheduling in optical access networks. For the former, we present efficient and accurate models for availability-aware design and service provisioning in p-cycle based survivable networks. We also derive optimization models for survivable network design based on p-trail, a more general protection structure, and compare its performance with p-cycles. Indeed, major cost savings can be obtained when the optical access and long-haul subnetworks become closer to each other by means of consolidation of access and metro networks. As this distance between long-haul and access networks reduces, and the need and expectations from passive optical access networks (PONs) soar, it becomes crucial to efficiently manage bandwidth in the access while providing the desired level of service availability in the long-haul backbone. We therefore address in this thesis the problem of bandwidth management and scheduling in passive optical networks; we design efficient joint and non-joint scheduling and bandwidth allocation methods for multichannel PON as well as next generation 10Gbps Ethernet PON (10G-EPON) while addressing the problem of coexistence between 10G-EPONs and multichannel PONs

WDM/TDM PON bidirectional networks single-fiber/wavelength RSOA-based ONUs layer 1/2 optimization

This Thesis proposes the design and the optimization of a hybrid WDM/TDM PON at the L1 (PHY) and L2 (MAC) layers, in terms of minimum deployment cost and enhanced performance for Greenfield NGPON. The particular case of RSOA-based ONUs and ODN using a single-fibre/single-wavelength is deeply analysed. In this WDM/TDM PON relevant parameters are optimized. Special attention has been given at the main noise impairment in this type of networks: the Rayleigh Backscattering effect, which cannot be prevented. To understand its behaviour and mitigate its effects, a novel mathematical model for the Rayleigh Backscattering in burst mode transmission is presented for the first time, and it has been used to optimize the WDM/TDM RSOA based PON. Also, a cost-effective, simple design SCM WDM/TDM PON with rSOA-based ONU, was optimized and implemented. This prototype was successfully tested showing high performance, robustness, versatility and reliability. So, the system is able to give coverage up to 1280 users at 2.5 Gb/s / 1.25 Gb/s downstream/upstream, over 20 Km, and being compatible with the GPON ITU-T recommendation. This precedent has enabled the SARDANA network to extend the design, architecture and capabilities of a WDM/TDM PON for a long reach metro-access network (100 km). A proposal for an agile Transmission Convergence sub-layer is presented as another relevant contribution of this work. It is based on the optimization of the standards GPON and XG-PON (for compatibility), but applied to a long reach metro-access TDM/WDM PON rSOA-based network with higher client count. Finally, a proposal of physical implementation for the SARDANA layer 2 and possible configurations for SARDANA internetworking, with the metro network and core transport network, are presented

Monitoring of passive optical networks utilising an optical coding technique

Passive Optical Networks (PONs) have become the most popular fibre based access networks over the last decade. They are widely deployed for use in Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) scenarios. PON is a point-to-multipoint connection (P2MP) between an optical line terminal (OLT) located at the central office (CO) and multiple optical network units (ONU) at the customer premises. The next generation of PONs (NG-PON) are likely to deploy a ring-and-spur long reach PON (LR-PON). NG-PON aims to accommodate more ONUs, extend the network coverage out to 100 km, minimize complexity and improve operational outcomes. An all fibre access network, operating over extended distances, presents a reliability risk, thereby increasing the need for a reliable and cost-effective monitoring system to enhance protection and reduce restoration time. Among existing monitoring techniques, attention is focused on approaches that use optical code division multiplexing (OCDM), also known as optical coding (OC). The OC is applied to a signal that is sent from the network management system (NMS) to the ONUs. The monitoring signal is transmitted onto a fibre and split into a number of sub-signals that are equal in number to the ONUs. Each one of the ONUs receives a sub-signal, encodes it, and then reflects it back to the NMS. The NMS has the capability to identify faulty ONUs by examining the code received from the ONUs. A review of the literature has shown that the use of OCs does improve system performance, especially in the timely detection of faults. Many of the studies, found in the literature, focus on how to implement optical spreading codes that are used in OCDM Access (OCDMA) systems and currently the optical orthogonal code (OOC) is the dominant code implemented for time-domain coding. Although the OOC code performs well, its construction is relatively complex. The available code-words (cardinality) that are offered by OOC are proportional to the code length. Implementing OOC in a high capacity PON requires a long code length causes an inevitable degradation of system performance. Therefore, an improved optical coding technique for PONs should provide code-words that conform to PON split ratios. The main objective of the research was to develop an optical spreading code, based on a prime code family for OCDMA systems, that has the capability to accommodate different PON split ratios and with characteristics that improve transmission system performance when compared to existing prime code families. The novel code presented in this thesis is identified as the extended grouped new modified prime code (EG-nMPC). The number of code-words generated by the proposed codes are substantially higher than those generated by the existing code families and more compatible to the different PON splitting ratios. In addition, with a low code weight, both power consumption and hardware complexity decreases. The code performance was evaluated using mathematical models for two transmission formats - pulse position modulation (PPM) and on-off keying (OOK) modulation. The performance of EG-nMPC was compared to other prime codes, and the results show that the proposed code improves the performance of OCDMA in terms of bit-error rate (BER). As PON is a point-to-multipoint connection oriented access network, downstream traffic is encrypted and broadcast to all ONUs, while the unencrypted upstream traffic from each ONU terminal occurs in a burst mode. The OLT carries out a ranging process to determine transmission delays between ONUs, to prevent collisions between the burst mode traffic from each of the ONUs. In this research, the burst mode traffic ranging process has been replicated in the monitoring system, with this replication providing a fixed equalization delay time for the monitoring transmissions. To investigate the ring-and-spur LR-PON reliability several protection architectures were evaluated, in term of cost and availability, to determine the optimal protection architecture. In this thesis, the reliability parameter Failure Impact Robustness (FIR), has been used to calculate the failure impact of the different components in ring-and-spur LR-PON, hence selecting the optimal protection scheme. A PON-based optical communication system model was developed and the proposed EG-nMPC code was incorporated. Fibre split ratios of 32, 64 and 128, were considered in this study. The simulation results show that the EG-nMPC code improves the performance, efficiency and accuracy of the PON transmission monitoring system. To conclude, this research aims to enhance the PON performance by a fast detection of the fault and quick restoration. This research has contributed to knowledge by identifying a new and novel spreading code that is compatible with the different PON splitting ratios for OC monitoring techniques. By using the ranging process, a fixed equalization delay time has been assigned to each ONU to manage the upstream burst traffic. The spreading code has been implemented in a real-time simulation to show the status of each fibre link. The implementation was carried out based on 1-D tree topology system. However, the proposed EG-nMPC can be exploited to enable network monitoring that is based on hybrid 1D/2D coding. This coding is complementary with the structure of LR-PON as explained in section ‎8.2.3. In addition, with the use of the FIR parameter for the different components in the ring-and-spur architecture, an optimal protection scheme for both OLT and the ring (feeder fibre), has been nominated. This protection scheme ensures that protection, availability and cost are at their optimal values