Resource Management in STARGATE-Based Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (SG-EPONs)

At present there is a strong worldwide push toward bringing fiber closer to individual homes and businesses. Another evolutionary step is the cost-effective all-optical integration of fiber-based access and metro networks. STARGATE (IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 50-56, May 2007) is an all-optical access-metro architecture that does not rely on costly active devices, e.g., optical cross connects or fixed wavelength converters, and allows low-cost passive optical network (PON) technologies to follow low-cost Ethernet technologies from Ethernet PON (EPON) access into metro networks, resulting in significantly reduced cost and complexity. It uses an overlay island of transparency with optical bypassing capabilities. We first propose optical network unit 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.