Different hybrid WDM/TDM PON architectures are compared in terms of flexibility, simplicity (affecting the cost), insertion loss (affecting the reach) and security. Special attention is given to the flexibility aspect in next generation optical access networks by designing different architectures with a different degree of flexibility, which are able to cope with different ranges of dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) possibilities. This paper assesses the degree of architectural flexibility needed to deal with some important flexibility advantages. It is shown that mostly a partially flexible architecture fulfils the needs. The architectures are then further evaluated from a cost and reach perspective. In this way, we provide a complete comparison considering all the key aspects of access network design. It is shown that a hybrid WDM/TDM PON with a partially flexible architecture in the first remote node can be an interesting candidate for next-generation optical access networks
