Final Activity Report Summary - DEPON (Decentralized Ethernet-Based Broadband Passive Optical Access Networking Architectures)
1. understanding of the access networks of interest and the applications of these networks and development and evaluation of different decentralised Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) architectures, namely tree-based based Ethernet over star coupler-based passive optical network (PON) architectures and ring-based architectures that also supported local area network (LAN) capability. The architecture designs were developed and simulation of their performance was performed to evaluate these designs, mainly in terms of survivability and efficiency, so as to determine how we could more efficiently allocate the bandwidth that was available for the traffic present in these access networks. The abovementioned progress was analysed in the first project deliverable (D1).
2. design of efficient dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms for the tree-based Ethernet over star coupler-based PON architecture. The developed algorithms were evaluated for light and heavy load and were compared to the existing centralised techniques as part of the second work package (WP2).
In addition, part of the work associated with the third work package (WP3) was completed, i.e. the design of novel survivability techniques for decentralised EPON architectures.
During the last 12 months of the project the following work was completed:
1. design of dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms for ring-based EPON architectures that supported dynamic bandwidth allocation for the traffic requirements, as well as a truly shared LAN capability among PON end-users. The performance of this technique was compared with that of a tree-based centralised scheme and was presented in the second project deliverable (D2).
2. development of novel survivability architectures and techniques for ring-based EPON architectures. The proposed techniques for survivability were analysed and their performance compared with other existing techniques in terms of traffic loss, restoration speed, and types of failures that could be recovered, as described in the third project deliverable (D3).
The scope of the project was also extended so as to include not only EPON architectures but also wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) architectures. For the WDM-PON architectures the following work was completed:
1. we designed and demonstrated a centrally controlled, self-survivable, bi-directional WDM-PON architecture using optical carrier suppression techniques and a simple wavelength assignment scheme. All types of network failures at feeder or distribution fibres, remote nodes and transmitters in the optical line terminal (OLT) and the optical network units (ONUs) were detected and recovered with this technique, as described in the extension of D3.
2. we developed and analysed the performance of a ring-based WDM-PON architecture that provided dynamic allocation of wavelength channels, protection against failures and shared LAN capability among WDM-PON end users, as mentioned in the extensions of D2 and D3.
Moreover, the scope of the project was further extended to address the issue of how to optimise the performance of current mobile backhaul radio access network (RAN) infrastructures to cope with the growing and dynamic nature of the emerging mobile data-centric traffic and services. Under this work we designed and analysed an Ethernet-based multiservice network architecture that utilised the existing wireline EPON infrastructure as a packet-based radio access transport network, as included in D1 and D2 further extensions.
The results from this work were published in the Optical Society of America (OSA) Journal of Optical Networking, in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) proceedings of the Global Communications Conference (Globecom), in the IEEE Proceedings of the International Communications Conference, in the IEEE and OSA proceedings of the Optical Fibre Communications Conference and in the proceedings of the Laser Electro-Optic Society (LEOS) annual meeting. For further details see appendix B on the list of publications during the period of the project that was included in deliverable four (D4).