Gigabit Passive Optical Network Transmission Convergence Extension for Next Generation Access

• US 20130121697A1
• Filed: 12/07/2012
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Luo, Yuanqiu, Effenberger, Frank J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,781,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/27 Arrangements for networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0067 Provisions for optical access or distribution networks, e.g. Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GE-PON), ATM-based Passive Optical Network (A-PON), PON-Ring
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2011/0079 Operation or maintenance aspects

Abstract

An apparatus comprising a data framer configured to frame a data stream into a plurality of frames each comprising a plurality of fields sized to align the frames with a word boundary greater than or equal to about four bytes long, and an optical transmitter coupled to the data framer and configured to transmit the frames. Included is an apparatus comprising at least one component configured to implement a method comprising encapsulating a data stream with at least one Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) Encapsulation Method (GEM) payload aligned with a word boundary at least about four bytes long, encapsulating the GEM payload with a GPON Transmission Convergence (GTC) frame aligned with the word boundary, and transmitting the GTC frame.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a data framer configured to frame a data stream into a plurality of frames each comprising a plurality of fields sized to align the frames with a word boundary greater than or equal to about four bytes long; and

an optical transmitter coupled to the data framer and configured to transmit the frames.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the word boundary length is based on a transmission bandwidth, and wherein the word boundary increases proportionally with the transmission bandwidth.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the frames support identification of up to about 65,536 unique optical network unit (ONU) addresses.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an optical receiver coupled to the data framer and configured to receive a plurality of second frames comprising a plurality of second fields each sized to align the second frames with the word boundary, wherein the data framer is configured to obtain a second data stream from the second frames.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frames comprise a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) Transmission Convergence (GTC) frame.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the GTC frame comprises a Physical Control Block downstream (PCBd).

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the PCBd comprises a Physical Synchronization (PSync), an Identification (Ident), a Physical Layer Operations, Administration and Maintenance downstream (PLOAMd), a Bit Interleaved Parity (BIP), a Payload Length Downstream (Plend), and an upstream Bandwidth map (US BWmap).

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the PLOAMd is an integer multiple of about four bytes long, the BIP is about four bytes long, and the US BWmap is about four bytes long.

9. A method comprising:

framing a data stream into a plurality of frames each comprising a plurality of fields sized to align the frames with a word boundary greater than or equal to about four bytes long; and

transmitting the frames.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein framing the data stream comprises:

encapsulating the data stream into a plurality of fields;

aligning the lengths of the fields individually or combined to a word boundary equal to at least four bytes; and

packaging the fields into a frame.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the word boundary length is based on a transmission bandwidth, and wherein the word boundary increases proportionally with the transmission bandwidth.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the frames support identification of up to about 65,536 unique optical network unit (ONU) addresses.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving a plurality of second frames comprising a plurality of second fields each sized to align the second frames with the word boundary, wherein the data framer is configured to obtain a second data stream from the second frames.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the frames comprise a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) Transmission Convergence (GTC) frame.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the GTC frame comprises a Physical Control Block downstream (PCBd).

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the PCBd comprises a Physical Synchronization (PSync), an Identification (Ident), a Physical Layer Operations, Administration and Maintenance downstream (PLOAMd), a Bit Interleaved Parity (BIP), a Payload Length Downstream (Plend), and an upstream Bandwidth map (US BWmap).

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the PLOAMd is an integer multiple of about four bytes long, the BIP is about four bytes long, and the US BWmap is about four bytes long.

18. A method for framing data, comprising:

encapsulating a data stream into at least one Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) encapsulation Method (GEM) frame; and

encapsulating the GEM frame into a GPON Transmission Convergence (GTC) frame; and

transmitting the GTC frame,

wherein the GEM frame comprises a header aligned with a word boundary of an integer multiple of four bytes.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the GTC frame comprises network control and management information aligned with the word boundary of an integer multiple of four bytes.