Methods and Systems for Transmitting Data in Scalable Passive Optical Networks
First Claim
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1. An optical communication system comprising:
- a first printed circuit board including a medium access control (MAC) unit for generating MAC frames to be transmitted over said optical communication system;
a second printed circuit board including elements of an optical transceiver module for receiving said MAC frames and transmitting said MAC frames;
an interconnect which connects said first printed circuit board to said second printed circuit board to enable said MAC frames to be communicated from said MAC unit to said optical transceiver module via a predetermined communication protocol,wherein said first printed circuit board further includes logic for processing said MAC frames in accordance with said predetermined communication protocol into other frames for communication over said interconnect and said second printed circuit board further includes logic for processing said other frames to extract said MAC frames for transmission.
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Abstract
Systems and methods according to these exemplary embodiments provide for methods and systems that enable decoupling of medium access control (MAC) functions from other optical transceiver functions to, for example, promote scalability of passive optical networks (PONs). A MAC frame processing unit can communicate MAC frames to optical transceiver modules via an interconnect using an encapsulating frame according to another communications protocol, e.g., XAUI.
22 Citations
24 Claims
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1. An optical communication system comprising:
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a first printed circuit board including a medium access control (MAC) unit for generating MAC frames to be transmitted over said optical communication system; a second printed circuit board including elements of an optical transceiver module for receiving said MAC frames and transmitting said MAC frames; an interconnect which connects said first printed circuit board to said second printed circuit board to enable said MAC frames to be communicated from said MAC unit to said optical transceiver module via a predetermined communication protocol, wherein said first printed circuit board further includes logic for processing said MAC frames in accordance with said predetermined communication protocol into other frames for communication over said interconnect and said second printed circuit board further includes logic for processing said other frames to extract said MAC frames for transmission. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for optical communications comprising:
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generating MAC frames to be transmitted over said optical communication system; processing said MAC frames in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol into other frames; transmitting said other frames over an interconnect; receiving said other frames; extracting said MAC frames from said other frames; and transmitting said MAC frames over said optical communication system. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A communications node comprising:
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a medium access control (MAC) unit for generating Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) transmission convergence layer (GTC) frames to be transmitted by an optical transceiver module; and logic for processing said GTC frames into other frames in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol and for transmitting said other frames toward said optical transceiver module. - View Dependent Claims (22)
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23. A communications node comprising:
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logic for receiving frames formatted in accordance with a predetermined communication protocol and processing said frames into Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) transmission convergence (GTC) layer frames; and an optical transceiver module for receiving said GTC frames and for processing and optically transmitting said GTC frames. - View Dependent Claims (24)
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Specification