PON WITH ACTIVE ADAPTION OF OPTICAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Abstract

This application relates to a method for managing traffic flow in a passive optical network (PON) which connects an optical line terminal (OLT) to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) via an optical distribution network (ODN). The method may comprise obtaining one or more optimization parameters for a target state of the PON. The method may also comprise determining for one or more or each of the ONUs, a respective modulation scheme for communicating data between the OLT and that ONU. The method may further comprise determining a respective power distribution ratio for a distributive element of the ODN for one or more of the ONUs based on the determined modulation scheme and the one or more optimization parameters. Specifically, the distributive element may have a first port and a plurality of second ports. In particular, the first port may be associated with signal transmission between the OLT and the ODN, and each second port may be associated with signal transmission between the ODN and a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs. Besides, each of the second ports of the distributive element may be associated with a power distribution ratio of optical power at that second port to optical power at the first port of the distributive element. Furthermore, the method may comprise adjusting a respective branch power for the one or more of the ONUs based on the determined power distribution ratio for communicating data between the OLT and the one or more of the ONUs.

Claims

1. A method for managing traffic flow in a passive optical network, PON, the PON connecting an optical line terminal, OLT, to a plurality of optical network units, ONUs, via an optical distribution network, ODN, the method comprising: obtaining, at the OLT, one or more optimization parameters for a target state of the PON; determining, at the OLT, for one or more or each of the ONUs, a respective modulation scheme for communicating data between the OLT and that ONU; determining, at the OLT, a respective power distribution ratio for a distributive element of the ODN for one or more of the ONUs based on the determined modulation scheme and the one or more optimization parameters, the distributive element having a first port and a plurality of second ports, the first port associated with signal transmission between the OLT and the ODN, and each second port associated with signal transmission between the ODN and a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs, wherein each of the second ports of the distributive element is associated with a power distribution ratio of optical power at that second port to optical power at the first port of the distributive element; and adjusting, at the distributive element, a respective branch power for the one or more of the ONUs based on the determined power distribution ratio for communicating data between the OLT and the one or more of the ONUs.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the respective modulation schemes based on the determined power distribution ratio and varying the respective modulation schemes and/or the respective power distribution ratio until the target state of the PON is reached.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, at the OLT, for each of the ONUs, a respective coding scheme and/or one or more respective forward error correction, FEC, parameters for communicating data between the OLT and that ONU; providing, at the OLT, the determined modulation schemes, the determined coding schemes, and/or the determined FEC parameters to the ONUs; and sending, from the OLT, the determined power distribution ratio to the distributive element of the ODN for the adjusting of the respective branch power.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining, at the OLT, the respective power distribution ratio for the one or more ONUs based on the determined coding schemes and/or the determined FEC parameters.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising: obtaining, at the OLT, a bandwidth request from the plurality of ONUs; obtaining, at the OLT, one or more system parameters relating to a current state of the PON, the one or more system parameters comprising information relating to the respective branch power for communicating data between the OLT and the respective ONU; and determining, for each of the ONUs, the respective modulation scheme, coding scheme and/or one or more respective FEC parameters based on the bandwidth request from that ONU, the one or more system parameters, and the one or more optimization parameters.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more system parameters comprise one or more of: optical power from a transceiver of an ONU and/or of the OLT, a system bit error rate; one or more FEC parameters for a transceiver of an ONU and/or of the OLT; and a coding scheme of optical signals for data communication between an ONU and the OLT.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the information relating to the respective branch power comprises link attenuation of an individual or a group of the ONUs.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the distributive element is controllable and provides an asymmetrical splitting ratio distribution among the second ports of the distributive element, the method further comprising adjusting a splitting ratio of one or more of the second ports of the distributive element.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the respective branch power for the one or more of the ONUs further comprises applying optical amplification to one or more of the second ports of the distributive element for the respective one or more of the ONUs and adjusting the respective optical amplification for the one or more of the ONUs, and/or the adjusting of the respective branch power further comprises adjusting a respective optical signal-to-noise ratio, OSNR for the one or more of the ONUs.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more optimization parameters are associated with throughput maximization according to a bandwidth request from the plurality of ONUs, or green PON network system operation.

11. A system for managing traffic flow in a passive optical network, PON, comprising an optical line terminal, OLT, connected to a plurality of optical network units, ONUs, via an optical distribution network, ODN, having a distributive element, the system comprising: a system control means located at the OLT; and a distribution control means located at the distributive element, the distributive element having a first port associated with signal transmission between the OLT and the ODN via a first optical link and a plurality of second ports each associated with signal transmission between the ODN and a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs via a respective second optical link, wherein each of the second ports of the distributive element is associated with a respective power distribution ratio of optical power at that second port to optical power at the first port of the distributive element, and wherein the system control means comprises: a PON control unit configured to: obtain one or more optimization parameters for a target state of the PON; and determine, for one or more or each of the ONUs, a respective modulation scheme for communicating data between the OLT and that ONU via the first optical link and the respective second optical link; and an ODN control unit configured to: obtain the determined modulation scheme from the PON control unit; and determine the respective power distribution ratio for one or more of the ONUs based on the determined modulation schemes and the one or more optimization parameters, and wherein the distribution control means is configured to: adjust a respective branch power for the one or more of the ONUs based on the determined power distribution ratio for communicating data between the OLT and the one or more of the ONUs.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the PON control unit is further configured to obtain the determined power distribution ratio from the ODN control unit and to determine the respective modulation schemes based on the determined power distribution ratio, wherein the system control means is configured to vary the respective modulation schemes and/or the respective power distribution ratio until the target state of the PON is reached.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein: the PON control unit is further configured to: determine for each of the ONUs, a respective coding scheme and/or one or more respective forward error correction, FEC, parameters for communicating data between the OLT and that ONU; and provide, to a Media Access Control, MAC, layer of the PON, the determined modulation schemes, the determined coding schemes, and/or the determined FEC parameters to the ONUs, and the ODN control unit is further configured to: provide the determined power distribution ratio to the MAC layer of the PON for sending the determined power distribution ratio to the distribution control means for adjusting the respective branch power; and determine the respective power distribution ratio for the one or more of the ONUs based on the determined coding schemes and/or the determined FEC parameters.

14. An optical line terminal, OLT, for data communication with a plurality of optical network units, ONUs, in a passive optical network, PON, via an optical distribution network, ODN, the OLT comprising: a control interface configured to obtain one or more optimization parameters for a target state of the PON; a PON control unit configured to determine one or more modulation schemes for communicating optical data between the OLT and one or more of the ONUs; and an ODN control unit configured to: obtain the determined one or more modulation schemes from the PON control unit; and determine, based on the determined one or more modulation schemes and the one or more optimization parameters, a respective power distribution ratio for the ODN for communicating the optical data with the one or more of the ONUs.

15. A distributive element for an optical distribution network, ODN, for data communication between an optical line terminal, OLT, and a plurality of optical network units, ONUs, in a passive optical network, PON, the distributive element comprising: a first port associated with signal transmission between the OLT and the ODN via a first optical link; a plurality of second ports each associated with signal transmission between the ODN and a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs within the PON via a respective second optical link; and a distribution control means configured to: obtain, from the OLT, a respective power distribution ratio for each of the second ports; and adjust a respective branch power for one or more of the ONUs based on the obtained respective power distribution ratio for communicating data between the OLT and the one or more of the ONUs.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0049] Embodiments of the disclosure are explained below in an exemplary manner with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein

[0050] FIGS. 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c) illustrate the evolution of PON solutions for different system generations;

[0051] FIG. 2(a) schematically illustrates an exemplary architecture of a full-potential flexible passive optical network (PON) according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0052] FIG. 2(b) schematically illustrates an exemplary system control means within the OLT in a full-potential flexible PON according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0053] FIG. 3 illustrates a method for managing traffic flow in a passive optical network (PON) according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0054] FIG. 4(a) schematically illustrates an example of a conventional four-port optical power splitter to be implemented in an ODN of a PON;

[0055] FIG. 4(b) schematically illustrates an exemplary variable optical power splitter for implementation in an ODN of a full-potential flexible PON according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0056] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates exemplary implementations of the distributive element in an amplification configuration (FIG. 5(a)) and in an attenuation configuration (FIG. 5(b)) according to embodiments of the disclosure;

[0057] FIG. 6 illustrates a comparison of traffic management for classic/flexible PON (FIG. 6(a)) and the proposed full-potential flexible PON (FIG. 6(b));

[0058] FIG. 7(a) schematically illustrates a conventional static PON with static ODN splitter configurations as well as static PON system net rates on the physical layer;

[0059] FIG. 7(b) schematically illustrates a classic flexible-rate PON with flexible PON system at the OLT but static ODN splitter configurations; and

[0060] FIG. 7(c) schematically illustrates an exemplary architecture of a full-potential flexible PON according to embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0061] FIG. 1 illustrates the evolution of PON solutions for different system generations. FIG. 1(a) shows the standard PON solution where the system as well as the ODN is static (i.e., fixed line rates, fixed modulation formats and fixed ODN) and the overall system performance is limited by the ODN. FIG. 1(b) shows the flexible-rate PON approach where variable line rates, modulation formats and FEC rates are flexible up to the static (fixed) ODN limits. Within the standard PON solution where all ONUs are designed for a defined ODN attenuation range, most of the ONUs are far away from reaching the bandwidth limits and show still some margin. On the other hand, the flexible PON may use the available margin to increase net data rates by adjusting modulation formats and FEC code rates. However, far distant ONUs with bad power conditions will still not benefit by use of the flexible-rate PON solution. In the deployment of classic PON systems, ODN is fully passive and static.

[0062] Such PON systems need to cope with the limits given by the ODN attenuation, and the overall system is set up according to the ODN parameters which are defined and given during installation.

[0063] FIG. 1(c) shows the full-potential flexible PON approach where the line rates, modulation formats and ODN parameters are all variable to achieve a fully flexible PON. The ODN becomes a part of the system and can be configured to meet customers' needs. In particular, the ODN parameters also belong to system parameters and can be adjusted by use of flexible splitters/combiners, whenever it is required to dynamically or statically configure dedicated links and fulfill individual bandwidth requirements. To this end, adjustable splitters/combiners may be combined with the flexible-rate PON to overcome power limitations even for far distant ONUs and to enable fully configurable net data rates according to the customers' need. Bandwidth and traffic management can be dynamically assigned. The use of controllable asymmetrical splitters will enable a deterministic and flexible PON, and show a next level of flexibility. Additionally, this full-potential flexible PON approach can also be used to optimize bandwidth conditions for the individual customers, dependent on their personal needs, and further to build up a green PON allowing lowest possible transmit power for reduction of the overall power consumption/system costs.

[0064] FIG. 2(a) schematically illustrates an exemplary architecture of a full-potential flexible passive optical network (PON) according to embodiments of the disclosure. The PON 200 comprises an optical line terminal (OLT) 201 located at a central office (CO) and one or more optical network terminals (ONTs) 203 connected each other via an optical distribution network (ODN) 202. The ODN 202 can distribute data (e.g., received via the data interface 208) carried by optical signals from the OLT 201 to the individual ONUs or groups of ONUs 203 using a distributive element in the form of an optical splitter/combiner 210 (depending on whether the traffic is related to a downstream link or an upstream link), which has a first port connected to the OLT 201 and a plurality of second ports each connected to a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs 203.

[0065] Specifically, the ODN 202 has a tree-and-branch architecture and thereto comprises an optical feeder fiber 204, a passive 1: n splitter/multiplexer (or combiner) 210, and n optical distribution fibers or drop fibers 211-1, 211-2, 211-3, . . . , 211-n that connect the passive optical splitter/multiplexer 210 to respective ones of the ONUs 203-1, 203-2, . . . , 203-n. The optical feeder fiber 204 connects the OLT 201 to the first port of the passive splitter/multiplexer 210, and each of the optical distribution fibers 211 connects the respective second ports of the passive splitter/multiplexer 210 to a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs 203. According to some examples, the central office may host multiple OLTs, similar to OLT 201. The feeder fiber 204 is shared for downstream transmissions towards multiple ONUs 203 and upstream transmissions from multiple ONUs 203.

[0066] Generally, to avoid collisions between the n users sharing the PON, a time-division multiplexing (TDM) protocol is used in downstream direction and a time-division multiple access (TDMA) protocol is used in upstream direction.

[0067] The ONUs 203-1, 203-2, . . . , 203-n in other words receive data in different time intervals and transmit data in different time intervals assigned to them. The upstream time intervals assigned to the ONUs 203 may have equal or different lengths (timeslots). Moreover, it may also be possible to use wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) for separate communications with the individual ONUs 203 that will then receive/transmit data carried by optical signals at different wavelengths. It is further noted that, although the illustrated system of FIG. 2(a) includes one distributive element, as mentioned above, more than one and any number of distributive elements may be applicable, for example, in a cascaded architecture and are within the scope of present implementations.

[0068] In the embodiment, the OLT 201 comprises a system control means (such as a control engine) 206, and the passive optical splitter/multiplexer 210 (as the distributive element) comprises a distribution control means (such as a splitter control engine) 210b working together with a controllable (variable) splitter/multiplexer 210a. It is further noted that each of the second ports of the optical splitter/multiplexer 210 may be associated with a respective power distribution ratio of optical power at that second port to optical power at the first port of the optical splitter/multiplexer 210.

[0069] In particular, the system control means 206 comprises a PON control unit 206a and an ODN control unit 206b. The PON control unit 206a is configured to obtain, via e.g., a control interface 207, one or more optimization parameters for a target state of the PON 200. The target state may indicate, for example, parameters and/or performance of the system (such as line rates, up/down-stream traffic and latency, etc.) at which the PON shall operate/reach according to customers' requests and deployment requirements/conditions. These optimization targets may be determined or pre-configured at a user and/or system level. The PON control unit 206a is further configured to determine, for each of the ONUs 203, a respective modulation scheme (and optionally a respective coding scheme and/or one or more respective FEC parameters) for communicating data between the OLT 201 and that ONU 203 via the feeder fiber 204 and the respective distribution fiber 211.

[0070] Moreover, the ODN control unit 206b is configured to obtain the determined modulation schemes (and optionally the determined respective coding scheme and/or the one or more determined respective FEC parameters) from the PON control unit 206a, and then to determine the respective power distribution ratio for one or more of the ONUs 203 based on the determined modulation schemes (and optionally the determined respective coding scheme and/or FEC parameter(s)) together with the one or more optimization parameters.

[0071] As indicated above, the distribution control means 210b is configured to receive or obtain the determined respective power distribution ratio for the one or more of the ONUs 203. The distribution control means 210b is also configured to adjust a respective branch power for the one or more of the ONUs 203 based on the determined power distribution ratio for communicating data between the OLT 201 and the one or more of the ONUs 203. Besides, the PON control unit 206a is also configured to provide, to a MAC layer 205 of the PON, the determined modulation schemes, the determined coding schemes, and/or the determined FEC parameters (e.g., the FEC settings) for bandwidth allocations at the physical layer to the ONUs 203. Also, the ODN control unit 206b is further configured to provide the determined power distribution ratio to the MAC layer 205 of the PON for sending the determined power distribution ratio to the distribution control means 210b for adjusting the respective branch power. The power distribution ratio, the modulation schemes (formats), the coding schemes, and/or the FEC parameters (the FEC settings) are provided from the control engine 206 to the MAC layer 205 via an internal communication 209.

[0072] It is noted that the optical splitter/multiplexer 210a inside the ODN can be controlled and adjusted remotely from the control engine 206 at the OLT side. For example, in the downstream direction, the different splitter ports can be adjusted in attenuation and tuned to enable the required power conditions for a given port or ONU 203.

[0073] FIG. 2(b) schematically illustrates an exemplary system control means within the OLT in a full-potential flexible PON according to embodiments of the disclosure. It is noted that FIG. 2(b) depicts a detailed view of the system control engine 206 of the OLT 201 as shown in FIG. 2(a), which contains similar entities with the same reference numbers performing the same or similar functions as in FIG. 2(a). It is to be emphasized that the system control means (system control engine) 206 is configured to receive/obtain, via the control interface 207, the optimization targets and input parameters as shown in Table 1, The input parameters may include, among others, a bandwidth request from the plurality of ONUs 203 and one or more system parameters relating to a current state of the PON 200.

[0074] As further shown in Table 1, the output parameters from the system control engine 206 include, among others, the determined power distribution ratios (e.g., the calculated splitter ratio), modulation formats, coding/shaping (such as NRZ or RZ shaping formats), and/or the FEC settings/parameters, which are to be provided to the MAC layer 205 via an internal communication 209. As indicated above, the power distribution ratios are determined by the ODN control unit 206b, and the modulation formats, coding/shaping and the FEC settings are determined by the PON control unit 206a. It is noted that the determined power distribution ratios will be obtained by the PON control unit 206a, via a feedback path 220 (from the ODN control unit 206b to the PON control unit 206a), which will then again determine the respective modulation schemes (and optionally the respective coding scheme and/or one or more respective FEC parameters) based on the determined power distribution ratio. In other words, the system control engine 206 is configured to vary the respective modulation schemes (and optionally the respective coding scheme and/or one or more respective FEC parameters) and/or the respective power distribution ratio until the target state of the PON is reached.

[0075] It is noted that variable splitter devices are introduced inside the ODN to enable the full-potential flexible-PON system. These variable power splitters work with a system control engine (e.g., the system control means 206) that takes care on the holistic PON operation and ODN parameters, i.e., allocation of power on different point-to-multipoint arms as well as allocation of flexible modulation and flexible FEC to various ONUs or ONU groups. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the system control engine 206 comprises a PON operations control 206a and an ODN operations control 206b. The PON operation parameter control 206a takes into account a set of input parameters from the ODN and customers/services as well as the optimization targets. The optimization targets may include, e.g., throughput maximization, or greener PON network system operation, and so on. It is further noted that the parameters listed in Table 1 are purely exemplary and are non-exhaustive. Other possible parameters may be also taken into account for the system optimization.

[0076] According to these input parameters and optimization target requests, a decision on the flexible-rate PON allocation per ONU or per group of ONU can be performed assuming the current state of the ODN power allocation (e.g., power splitting allocation for the downstream link). The determined flexible-rate PON allocation is then forwarded to the ODN control engine 206b that analyses the new allocation with the desired optimization targets and provides feedback 220 to the PON operation control 206a. In an iterative feedback loop the optimum set of parameters are targeted. Such optimization process may be implemented by e.g., machine learning algorithms (which may be run by, for example, a real-time processing engine). The proposed system thus performs an optimization procedure (e.g., by means of a real-time processing engine). Subsequently, the system control engine 206 provides a set of determined output parameters (e.g., as shown in Table 1) via feedback 209 to the PON MAC 205 that can instruct the PON hardware to perform the allocations. For example, power, modulation, FEC as well as other parameter settings are to be optimized to allow dynamic adjustability of the PON system.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Exemplary input- and output parameters of the system control engine and possible optimization levels Input parameter to Possible Output parameters for system control optimization full-potential flexible- engine targets, e.g.,: PON Optical power from all Optical received Calculated splitter ratio TRx power New system parameter Customer request for Net line rate FEC settings BW Total system Modulation Format Current system performance Coding/Shaping parameter Low cost TRx BER Premium FEC customer Coding Latency Up- and/or downstream traffic On a user and/or full system level

[0077] Accordingly, compared with the current classic PON solutions, in the proposed full-potential flexible-PON system, the ODN becomes an integral part of the system allocation functionality. For example, the splitting ratio of the ODN becomes an output parameter and thus can be used to optimize the overall system performance.

[0078] FIG. 3 illustrates a method for managing traffic flow in a passive optical network (PON) according to embodiments of the disclosure. The method 300 can be implemented by, for example, the PON system 200 as illustrated in FIG. 2(a), and the processing steps of the method 300 may be carried out by the different subsystems or means/units within the PON system 200 including the OLT 201, the ONUs 203 and the ODN 202.

[0079] Specifically, the method 300 comprises obtaining (step 301), at the OLT, one or more optimization parameters for a target state of the PON. The method 300 comprises determining (step 302), at the OLT, for one or more or each of the ONUs, a respective modulation scheme for communicating data between the OLT and that ONU. The method 300 also comprises determining (step 303), at the OLT, a respective power distribution ratio for a distributive element of the ODN for one or more of the ONUs based on the determined modulation scheme and the one or more optimization parameters. As indicated above, the distributive element has a first port connected to the OLT and a plurality of second ports each connected to a respective ONU or a respective group of ONUs. Besides, each of the second ports of the distributive element is associated with a power distribution ratio of optical power at that second port to optical power at the first port of the distributive element. The method 300 further comprises adjusting (step 304), at the distributive element, a respective branch power for the one or more of the ONUs based on the determined power distribution ratio for communicating data between the OLT and the one or more of the ONUs.

[0080] FIG. 4(a) schematically illustrates an example of a conventional four-port optical power splitter to be implemented in an ODN of a PON. In contrast, FIG. 4(b) schematically illustrates an exemplary variable optical power splitter for implementation in an ODN of a full-potential flexible PON according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the variable optical power splitter may be implemented (as the distributive element) in the PON system 200 as shown in FIG. 2(a).

[0081] In the embodiment of FIG. 4(b), the variable optical power splitter is controllable by the splitter control engine (i.e., the distribution control means) 210b and is configured to further provide an asymmetrical splitting ratio distribution among the distributive ports (i.e., second ports) 411-1, 411-2, 411-3, 411-4 of the variable optical power splitter. In some examples, the splitter control engine 210b may be further configured to adjust the loss/attenuation of one or more of the distributive ports (second ports) 411 of the variable optical power splitter, so as to achieve the asymmetrical splitting ratio distribution (i.e., asymmetrical power distribution ratios) among the distributive ports 411.

[0082] For example, the power distribution ratio can be 10% for the port 411-1, 25% for the port 411-2, 50% for the port 411-3 and 15% for the port 411-4. The distribution of the power ratios may be dependent on the requirements for data transmission and/or the user request for the individual ONUs (or group of ONUs). For example, the ONU associated with the port 411-3 may be provided with larger portion (e.g., 50% of the power from the first port 410 connected to the OLT) of the optical power because of its location which is farther away from the OLT compared to the other ONUs. The control engine 210b inside the variable splitter is used to adjust the different splitter ports to the requested levels.

[0083] In contrast, the conventional power splitter as shown in FIG. 4(a) divides the optical power equally to the distributive ports. Namely, each of the four distributive ports is assigned with 25% of the optical power at the first port 410 connected to the OLT, regardless of the status for data transmission or the user request for the individual ONUs. Thus, in case of the conventional splitter, all ports show uniform levels (e.g. 25% for a four port device).

[0084] Accordingly, inside the ODN, variable and controllable splitters from the OLT (or ONU) side are used to enable a flexible ODN. Different implementations of adjustable splitters known in the art may be applicable to the ODN within the full-potential flexible PON, such as implementation of a fusion coupler where change in strain to the splitter enables changed coupling ratio, and implementation of a splitter using Mach-Zehnder Interferometer assembly by selection of coupling ratio based on phase manipulation.

[0085] In the proposed PON system 200 shown in FIG. 2(a), a communication path from the system control engine 206 to the splitter control engine 210b inside the splitter may be established to adjust the dedicated splitter ratio (or loss) for each port. It should be noted that, the variable splitter of FIG. 4(b) having four distributive ports is purely exemplary and that other variable splitters having different numbers of distributive ports may be also applicable to the proposed full-potential flexible-PON system 200. It is further noted that multiple splitter stages (apart from the single stage as shown in the embodiment of FIG. 2(a) and FIG. 4(b)) can also be implemented. In the embodiment of FIG. 4(b), it is the variable splitter that serves as the distributive element for the downstream link, whereas the similar configuration can also be applied to a combiner/multiplexer for the upstream link.

[0086] It is noted that different percentages can be adjusted for the variable splitter to provide an asymmetrical splitting ratio (or loss) distribution. Normally the total percentage does not exceed 100%. However, it is also possible to alternatively combine the power splitting function with optical amplification for the ODN to increase the power allocation flexibility which would achieve higher total power larger than the input power (i.e., become >>100% compared to the power at the input port 410). For example, the splitter may be augmented by means of an optical amplification engine (e.g., semiconductor optical amplifiers). It is further noted that the system control engine 206 may also determine a respective optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) for one or more of the ONUs, for example, by adjusting the respective power splitting ratio and/or the respective amplification, as in specific configurations with cascaded amplified and adjustable splitter where the OSNR available at the output of the last cascade is OSNR adjustable/controllable to limited extent.

[0087] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates still possible exemplary implementations of the distributive element according to embodiments of the disclosure, which is to serve as a variable/adjustable power splitter. Herein, a combined use of a fixed splitter 501 with one or more optical amplifiers 502 and/or attenuators 503 is shown in FIG. 5(a) and FIG. 5(b), where the amplifier(s) 502-1, 502-2, . . . , 502and the attenuator(s) 503-1, . . . , 503-4 may be variable, or adjustable (controllable) by the splitter control engine 210b, which can be implemented by use of optical FPGA, for example. Again, the distributive element of FIG. 5 having four distributive ports is purely exemplary and that other variable splitters having different numbers of distributive ports may be also applicable with a modified number of optical amplifiers and optical attenuators corresponding to the number of distributive ports and are within the scope of present implementations.

[0088] Specifically, the one or more optical amplifiers 502 may be placed between the respective distributive ports (e.g., ports 411) of the distributive element and the respective one or more of the ONUs (e.g., ONUs 203), as shown in FIG. 5(a). Alternatively, the one or more optical amplifiers 502 may be placed between the input first port (e.g., port 410) of the distributive element and the OLT (e.g., OLT 201), as shown in FIG. 5(b). Additionally, the one or more optical attenuators 503 may be likewise placed between the respective distributive ports (e.g., ports 411) of the distributive element and the respective one or more of the ONUs (e.g., ONUs 203), as shown in FIG. 5(b). For these configurations, an optical amplification/attenuation control engine may be additionally introduced or incorporated into the splitter control engine 210b to determine power amplification/attenuation of the one or more optical amplifiers/attenuators for the respective one or more of the ONUs. Accordingly, the ODN becomes a system variable and is used to drive the service demand of customers and services to enhance the degree of flexibility for the PON. In particular, the system control engine 206 includes the ODN controller 206b for dynamic adjustment of dynamic bandwidth allocations (at the physical layer) and/or traffic management, and for effective bandwidth allocation/scheduling/timing (short-term/long-term) in the full-potential flexible PON. Also, the splitter control engine 210b supports for dynamical splitters to further configure asymmetrical splitting ratio (loss) distributions.

[0089] FIG. 6 illustrates a comparison of traffic management for classic/flexible PON (FIG. 6(a)) and the proposed full-potential flexible PON (FIG. 6(b)). For the classic (static) or flexible-rate PON system, the capacity that can be allocated on the physical layer for the ONU or group of ONUs is dictated by the given ODN link attenuation. As shown in FIG. 6(a), the management or allocation of resources for flexible-modulation and flexible-FEC as well as flexible probabilistic shaping (another pillar of flexible-rate PON) to the individual ONU or ONU groups has to be calculated (i.e., calculation of system profile as indicated by 601) taking into account these link attenuation (indicated by 603a) and the bandwidth request per user (indicated by 602) with the result of a so-called system profile for available bandwidth per user in upand downlink (indicated by 604). This processing is considered to be loss centric.

[0090] In contrast, as shown in FIG. 6(b), the calculation of a system profile 601 changes and can leverage its full potential. The link attenuation of individual ONU or group of ONUs becomes a flexible input parameter (indicated by 603b) that can be modified together with the flexible-modulation, flexible-FEC and flexible-shaping to address the bandwidth request of the users (indicated by 602). Thus, it can increase the system flexibility up to e.g., the maximum capacity for a given aggregated network request on the physical layer. In this way, the bandwidth allocation scheme of the PON evolves from the loss centric (as illustrated in FIG. 6(a)) to a user centric method (as illustrated in FIG. 6(b)). As indicated above, the ODN changes from pure passive and static to a controllable part of the PON system and becomes an integral part of the system.

[0091] FIG. 7(a) schematically illustrates a conventional static PON with static ODN splitter configurations as well as static PON system net rates on the physical layer. Herein, the OLT 701a and the splitter 710a of the ODN are both static/fixed to provide fixed line rates to the individual ONUs 703a. It is explicitly shown that the splitter 710a has equally distributed power ratios for the ONUs, namely, 25% of the input power for each ONUs, to support data transmission using the same modulation format (i.e., the non-return-to-zero NRZ format) for all the ONUs, regardless of the requirements/conditions of the end points.

[0092] FIG. 7(b) schematically illustrates a classic flexible-rate PON with flexible PON system at the OLT but static ODN splitter configurations. Herein, the OLT 701b provides variable net line rates for the ONUs 703b, while the splitter 710b of the ODN is static/fixed providing fixed branch power for the individual ONUs 703b. Similar to the splitter 710a in the system of FIG. 7(a), the splitter 710b also has equally distributed power ratios for the ONUs, namely, 25% of the input power for each ONUs, to support data transmission while using different modulation formats for the individual ONUs, depending on the link conditions and/or request from the end points.

[0093] For example, for a closer ONU such as ONU 703b-1 which may still receive sufficient power, a higher-level modulation format (optionally together with weak FEC of lower code rates) may be employed. On the other hand, for a faraway ONU such as ONU 703b-2 which receives lower optical power due to the distance, a rather simple modulation format like NRZ (optionally together with strong FEC of higher code rates) shall be applied, in order to achieve a better throughput while keeping a detectable signal quality.

[0094] FIG. 7(c) schematically illustrates an exemplary architecture of a full-potential flexible PON according to embodiments of the disclosure. Herein, the OLT 701c provides variable net line rates for the ONUs 703c, and the splitter 710c of the ODN is variable and adjustable/controllable by the OLT 701c through the splitter control engine 711 to provide various branch power for the individual ONUs 703c. It is noted that nonuniformly distributed power ratios at the variable splitter 710c as well as various modulation formats and/or FEC settings determined by the control engine 706 are provided for the ONUs 703c depending on the system link conditions and/or request from the end points.

[0095] For example, according to the individual distance to the OLT, a closer ONU 703c-1 can be assigned with a lower power distribution ratio of 10%, while a faraway ONU 703c-2 can be assigned with a higher power distribution ratio of 50%. In this way, it is ensured that the faraway ONU 703c-2 can still receive sufficient power, so that a higher-level modulation format such as Pulse-Amplitude-Modulation 4 (PAM4) can still be applied for communication with the ONU 703c-2 (and perhaps also sufficient with weak FEC of lower code rates). On the other hand, since less power is allocated to the closer ONU 703c-1, strong FEC with higher code rates may be employed for the ONU 703c-1 to ensure the signal detectability when applying higher-order modulation formats (e.g., PAM4).

[0096] Accordingly, the proposed full-potential flexible PON allows the variation of system (modulation, FEC, shaping, etc.) and ODN parameters (e.g., power splitting ratios) to achieve throughput maximization within the PON based on customers' needs (in terms of required power, bandwidth request, and so on).

[0097] As used in this application, the term means may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable): (i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit(s) with software/firmware and (ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and (c) hardware circuit(s) and/or processor(s), such as microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g. firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0098] This definition of means applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term means also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term means also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0099] It should be noted that the device features described above correspond to respective method features that may be however not explicitly described, for reasons of conciseness. The disclosure of the present document is considered to extend also to such method features.

[0100] It should be further noted that the description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of the proposed device. Those skilled in the art will be able to implement various arrangements that, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples and embodiment outlined in the present document are principally intended expressly to be only for explanatory purposes to help the reader in understanding the principles of the proposed device. Furthermore, all statements herein providing principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass equivalents thereof.