Resource management research in ethernet passive optical networks

Abstract

The last decades, we have witnessed different phenomenology in the telecommunications sector. One of them is the widespread use of the Internet, which has brought a sharp increase in traffic, forcing suppliers to continuously expand the capacity of networks. In the near future, Internet will be composed of long-range highspeed optical networks; a number of wireless networks at the edge; and, in between, several access technologies. Today one of the main problems of the Internet is the bottleneck in the access segment. To address this issue the Passive Optical Networks (PONs) are very likely to succeed, due to their simplicity, low-cost, and increased bandwidth. A PON is made up of fiber optic cabling and passive splitters and couplers that distribute an optical signal to connectors that terminate each fiber segment. Among the different PON technologies, the Ethernet-PON (EPON) is a great alternative to satisfy operator and user needs, due to its cost, flexibility and interoperability with other technologies. One of the most interesting challenges in such technologies relates to the scheduling and allocation of resources in the upstream (shared) channel, i.e., the resource management. The aim of this thesis is to study and evaluate current contributions and propose new efficient solutions to address the resource management issues mainly in EPON. Key issues in this context are future end-user needs, quality of service (QoS) support, energy-saving and optimized service provisioning for real-time and elastic flows. This thesis also identifies research opportunities, issue recommendations and proposes novel mechanisms associated with access networks based on optical fiber technologies.