A new control plane for next-generation WDM-PON access systems

Point-to-point or point-to-multipoint optical access systems are now considered as a viable alternative to xDSL technologies for broadband services. Point-to-multipoint WDM-PONs are the most advanced solution in this matter. Multiple architectures have been proposed since a few years for Next Generation WDM PON (NG-WDM-PON) operating on an hybrid TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and WDMA (Wavelength Division Multiple Access) mode. For that purpose, three key optoelectronic devices are considered: reflective modulators, AWG (Arrayed Waveguide Gratings) routers and tunable transceivers. The major investigations in this domain are mainly focused on physical layer aspects and on MAC protocols. In this paper, we propose an original control plane for NG-WDM-PON operating at two timescales: microscopic and macroscopic. The former deals with traditional packet access whereas the latter aims at two objectives. The first objective is to assign connections to upstream optical channels in order to optimize network utilization. The latter enables to reallocate dynamically the number of optical channels to the various PONs of the system. Numerous numerical results are presented in order to outline the benefit of this control plane. It becomes then possible to shift optical resources among the various geographical areas of the system according to their medium term activity.