Ethernet PON (ePON): Design and Analysis of an Optical Access Network

With the expansion of services offered over the Internet, the “last mile” bottleneck problems continue to exacerbate. A passive optical network (PON) is a technology viewed by many as an attractive solution to this problem. In this study, we propose the design and analysis of a PON architecture which has an excellent performance-to-cost ratio. This architecture uses the time-division multiplexing (TDM) approach to deliver data encapsulated in Ethernet packets from a collection of optical network units (ONUs) to a central optical line terminal (OLT) over the PON access network. The OLT, in turn, is connected to the rest of the Internet. A simulation model is used to analyze the system’s performance such as bounds on packets delay and queue occupancy. Then, we discuss the possibility of improving the bandwidth utilization by means of timeslot size adjustment, and by packet scheduling.