Energy efficiency in PON home network scenarios with network enhanced Residential Gateways

In this paper, new home network equipment alternatives for Passive Optical Networks (PON) are analyzed in terms of energy efficiency. Regarding Optical Network Terminations (ONT), relevant savings have been estimated by avoiding unused Ethernet and POTS interfaces at the ONTs. Minimal power consumption can be achieved using ONTs embedded in Small-Form Pluggable (SFP) packages. Power savings achieved by delivering Layer 3 functionalities of routed Residential Gateways (RG) to the service provider network are also estimated. Total savings in home network equipment power consumptions combining both energy efficiency approaches in ONT and RGs are estimated in a massive deployment broadband scenario, obtaining significant power saving with values ranging from 10% to 64%.