Dynamic wavelength sharing in Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexed PONs (TWDM-PONs)

Energy efficiency has long been an important design consideration in Passive Optical Networks. Over the years, significant efforts have been seen in reducing the power consumption on user side equipment, i.e., Optical Network Units. As the capacity of PONs are increasing in terms of the number of wavelength channels and the line-rate, it is equally important to improve the power efficiency on the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) side. In this paper, we will introduce our recent efforts in reducing the cost and power consumption of the OLTs, by introducing dynamic wavelength sharing and switching. Our results show that under typical ONU online profiles, the proposed dynamic wavelength sharing schemes can reduce up to 70% power consumption, and also can reduce the number of required wavelengths by a similar number in a multiple-PON environment, without bringing in significant loss in ONU availability and performance.