A novel expandable intersection‐ring architecture supporting optical network units' discretionary peer‐to‐peer communication in metro‐access network

Abstract

Summary Direct communication between optical network units (ONUs) provides the opportunity to reduce substantial latency among two communicating ONUs, which is very significant for next generation optical networks. In this paper, an expandable intersection‐ring architecture to support direct communication among ONUs is proposed. By adopting two tunable fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), direct peer‐to‐peer communication of ONUs can be achieved. By utilizing the cyclic routing property of arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), upstream/downstream communication together with direct communication among ONUs can be carried out simultaneously. By adopting intersection‐ring topology, any two adjacent flexible expansion nodes (FENs) on the main ring can be used as intersections to extend a new subring, the scale of the network can be enhanced greatly. Meanwhile, not only the protection of multiple fiber faults can be realized, but also the fault protection of key nodes can be performed. By using a strategy of transmitting signals separately from the top and the bottom branches of the ring, communication efficiency can be improved, transmission latency can be reduced, and fault isolation can be achieved effectively. By the simulation experiment, the effectiveness of the proposed network is demonstrated.

A High-Capacity Optical Metro Access Network: Efficiently Recovering Fiber Failures with Robust Switching and Centralized Optical Line Terminal

“…The metro access network consists of one or two central offices and M RNs [ 9 , 15 , 16 , 29 , 30 ], with a ring feeder fiber design. When building an OMAN, redundant fibers are buried [ 14 ]. A feeder fiber is utilized for network protection; when one fiber is broken, transmission can be shifted to the second fiber.…”

“…However, bridging optical access and metro networks requires a careful estimation of the deployment costs and power budgeting to facilitate the end-user with the guaranteed facilities [ 11 ]. Many researchers have widely deployed the ring topology in OMANs due to its self-healing characteristics and reliability for access networks [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. X. Li et al deployed a dual fiber ring structure for protection measurements and multiple transmitters at the optical line terminal side (OLT) [ 15 ].…”