Abstract: One embodiment provides a pluggable optical line terminal (OLT). The OLT includes a bi-directional optical transceiver configured to transmit optical signals to and receive optical signals from a number of optical network units (ONUs), an OLT chip coupled to the optical transceiver and configured to communicate with the ONUs through the optical transceiver, and a pluggable interface coupled to the OLT chip and configured to electrically interface between the OLT chip and a piece of network equipment. The optical transceiver, the OLT chip, and the pluggable interface are contained in an enclosure complying with a form factor, thereby allowing the pluggable OLT to be directly plugged into the network equipment.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates dynamic allocation of upstream bandwidth in a passive optical network which includes a central node and at least one remote node. Each remote node is coupled to at least one logical entity, which corresponds to a device or a user, that transmits upstream data to the central node and receives downstream data from the central node. The central node is coupled to an external network outside of the passive optical network through a shared out-going uplink.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides an optical line terminal (OLT) in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). The OLT includes a number of bi-direction optical transceivers. At least one bi-direction optical transceiver is coupled to an optical network unit (ONU) group that includes a number of ONUs. The OLT further includes a first downstream media access control (MAC) interface configured to provide a first downstream control signal and a splitter configured to split the first downstream control signal to a number of sub-signals. At least one sub-signal is configured to control downstream transmission of a corresponding bi-direction optical transceiver to a corresponding ONU-group.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for calculating a checksum for a packet. During operation, the system receives a packet, pads the received packet with a number of bits having predetermined values, and calculates an initial checksum value for the padded packet.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a media access control (MAC) module facilitating operations of an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). The MAC module includes a frame formatter configured to generate a MAC control frame. The generated MAC control frame includes at least one of: an organizationally unique identifier (OUI) field, an OUI-specific operation code (opcode) field, and a number of fields associated with the OUI-specific opcode. Transmission of the MAC control frame facilitates realization of an EPON function based on the fields associated with the OUI-specific opcode.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates dynamic allocation of upstream bandwidth in a passive optical network which includes a central node and at least one remote node. Each remote node is coupled to at least one logical entity, which corresponds to a device or a user, that transmits upstream data to the central node and receives downstream data from the central node. The central node is coupled to an external network outside of the passive optical network through a shared out-going uplink.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for power saving in an Ethernet Passive Optic Network (EPON). The system includes an optical line terminal (OLT), an optical network unit (ONU), a traffic-detection module configured to detect status of traffic to and from the ONU, and a power-management module configured to place the ONU in sleep mode based on the detected traffic status. The ONU includes an optical transceiver that includes an optical transmitter configured to transmit optical signals to the OLT and an optical receiver configured to receive optical signals from the OLT.

Abstract: One embodiment provides an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) system for clock transport. The system includes a reference clock configured to generate a frequency-reference signal, an optical line terminal (OLT) coupled to the reference clock, and an optical network unit (ONU). The OLT includes a clock generator configured to generate an OLT clock based on at least the frequency-reference signal. The ONU includes an optical transceiver, a clock recovery module, and a clock output mechanism. The optical transceiver is configured to transmit optical signals to and receive optical signals from the OLT. The clock-recovery module is configured to recover the frequency-reference signal from the received optical signals. The clock output mechanism is configured to output the recovered frequency-reference signal, thus facilitating transport of the frequency-reference signal over the EPON.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for controlling flow rate in an EPON. The system includes an OLT, an ONUs coupled to the OLT via a passive optical splitter, a switch coupled to a port located on the ONU, and a flow-control mechanism. The ONU includes one or more queues corresponding to one or more classes of Services, and one or more ports. The switch includes a plurality of UNI ports, and the switch is configured to switch one or more upstream traffic flows belonging to the one or more classes of services from the plurality of UNI ports. The flow-control mechanism is configured to set a flow rate of an upstream traffic flow of certain class of service originated from a UNI port. The flow-control mechanism sets the flow rate based on status of an ONU queue corresponding to the class of service of the upstream traffic flow.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system that performs protection switching in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON), which includes an optical line terminal (OLT) and at least one optical network unit (ONU). The system is configured with at least one redundant component for the OLT and/or ONUs, wherein the redundant component can be optical or electrical, and can be a port, line card or link. The system provides protection by detecting a failure, and switching automatically to the redundant components to reduce service disruption time. The protection switching comprises: preserving the existing configuration over the loss of at least one of a multiple-point control protocol (MPCP) message; an operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) message; and a signal on the physical layer. The system recovers from the failure without performing ONU discovery.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for performance monitoring in a passive optic network (PON). The system includes an optical line terminal (OLT) and an optical network unit (ONU). The OLT includes an optical transceiver configured to transmit optical signals to and receive optical signals from the ONU, and a performance monitoring mechanism configured to monitor performance of the PON based on received optical signals.

Abstract: One embodiment provides an intelligent passive optical network (PON) node. The intelligent PON node includes a number of optical line terminal (OLT)-side transceivers coupled to a first optical fiber, a number of optical network unit (ONU)-side transceivers, a switching mechanism configured to couple the OLT-side transceivers and the ONU-side transceivers, and a controller configured to control the coupling operation of the switching mechanism. The OLT-side transceivers are configured to transmit optical signals on a number of wavelength channels to and receive optical signals on a number of wavelength channels from the OLT. A respective ONU-side transceiver is configured to transmit optical signals to and receive optical signals from a downstream PON.

Abstract: The present invention provides a small form factor, pluggable ONU, which includes a bi-directional optical transceiver configured to transmit optical signals to and receive optical signals from an OLT. The ONU further includes an ONU chip coupled to the optical transceiver and configured to communicate with the OLT. Also included is a pluggable interface configured to electrically interface between the ONU chip and a piece of subscriber premise equipment (SPE). The ONU includes a power management module to provide power to the ONU chip and the optical transceiver, using power delivered from the SPE through the pluggable interface. The ONU is enclosed a small form factor enclosure, thereby allowing the pluggable ONU to be directly plugged into the SPE and providing an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) uplink to the SPE without requiring an separate power supply.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for forwarding packets in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) which includes a central node and at least one remote node. During operation, the system associates a logical link identifier (LLID) to a logical link between the central node and a remote node, wherein the logical link corresponds to a priority level based on a certain service level agreement (SLA). After receiving a packet to be forwarded to a remote node, the system then determines the value of one or more fields within the packet which is used to indicate a priority level for the packet. Subsequently, the system assigns an LLID to the packet based on the value of the one or more fields, thereby facilitating differentiated service qualities within the EPON.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for mitigating Raman crosstalk between downstream data and video transmission in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON), wherein the EPON includes an optical line terminal (OLT) and one or more optical network units (ONU's). During operation, the system transmits a data stream from the OLT to the ONU's on a first wavelength that is substantially at 1490 nm. The system also transmits a video signal stream from the OLT to the ONU's on a second wavelength that is substantially at 1550 nm. The system modifies the bit sequence for the data stream to change the power spectral distribution (PSD) for the data stream, thereby reducing power spectral content in the frequency range where significant Raman crosstalk can occur between data and video signal streams.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates transmission control in an Ethernet passive optical network, which includes a central node and at least one remote node, and wherein a remote node implements a data-link layer and a physical layer. During operation, the system starts by receiving, at the physical layer of a remote node, a word which is communicated from the data-link layer of the remote node, wherein the word may be a data word or an idle word. The system then delays the word for a pre-determined amount of time before allowing the word to be transmitted by a transmitter, thereby providing time for turning the transmitter on or off. The system also turns the transmitter on or off based on the content of the received words.

Abstract: One embodiment provides a system for decrypting data frames in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). During operation, the system maintains a local cipher counter at a local node, and receives from a remote node a data frame which is encrypted based on a remote input block and a session key. The remote input block is constructed based on the remote cipher counter and a remote block counter. The system updates the local cipher counter based on a received field located in a preamble of the data frame, truncates the local cipher counter by discarding a number of least significant bits, and constructs for the received data frame a local input block based on the truncated local cipher counter, the received field, and a local block counter. The system then decrypts the data frame based on the local input block and the session key.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for accommodating time-division multiplexing (TDM) traffic in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). During operation, the system receives data from an upstream TDM channel at a remote node and stores received data in a segmentation buffer. The system encapsulates the data stored in the segmentation buffer into a packet. The system receives a message from the central node granting a TDM transmission window starting at a designated time. The system further communicates the packet to an upstream transmission mechanism within the remote node before the designated time, and transmits to the central node an upstream frame containing the packet at the designated time.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates registration of remote nodes in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON). The system includes a central node and at least one remote node, wherein a number of virtual remote nodes are coupled to a common physical remote node and transmit upstream data through a common transmitter within the common physical remote node. During an initial discovery cycle, the system receives a solicitation message from the central node at a remote node, wherein the solicitation message assigns a discovery slot in which an unregistered remote node may transmit a response message to the central node for registration. The system then transmits a response message from an unregistered remote node to register within the assigned discovery slot.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that reduces data burst overhead in an Ethernet passive optical network which includes a central node and at least one remote node, wherein downstream data from the central node is broadcast to the remote nodes, and wherein upstream data from a remote node is transmitted to the central node in a unicast manner. During operation, the central node transmits grant messages to a number of remote nodes, wherein a grant message for a specified remote node assigns a start time and a duration of a transmission timeslot in which the specified remote node may transmit an upstream data burst. In response to the grant messages, the central node then receives a number of upstream data bursts, wherein the time gap between two consecutive upstream data bursts is less than the summation of a default laser turn-on time, a default laser turn-off time, an AGC period, and a CDR period.