A new optical access network, named “Scalable Advanced Ring-based passive Dense Access Network
Architecture” (SARDANA), is presented. It transparently integrates WDM metro and TDM PON access
technologies, implementing ring protection, 100 km reach and up to 1024 users served at 10 Gb/s, with
passive highly-shared infrastructure. The introduced innovations are hybrid ring/tree WDM/TDM Passive
Optical Network (PON) architecture; a resilient remote node (RN), which is distantly pumped from the
Optical Line Terminal (OLT); and a reflective ONU (Optical Network Unit); as well as an enhanced
Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol