Backward compatible PON coexistence

• US 8,855,490 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Effenberger, Frank J., Lin, Huafeng
• Primary Examiner(s): Leung, Danny
• Application Number:
  US12/039,336
• Publication Number:
  US 20090060507A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,413 Days
• Field of Search: 398/165, 398/168, 398/66, 398/67, 398/71, 398/72, 398/100
• US Class Current: 398/66
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0226 Fixed carrier allocation, e.g. according to service
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0227 Operation, administration, maintenance or provisioning [OAMP] of WDM networks, e.g. media access, routing or wavelength allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0246 using one wavelength per ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0247 Sharing one wavelength for at least a group of ONUs
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0252 Sharing one wavelength for at least a group of ONUs, e.g. for transmissions from-ONU-to-OLT or from-ONU-to-ONU
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0282 WDM tree architectures
• 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

Abstract

A network comprising a first optical line terminal (OLT), and a second OLT in communication with the first OLT, at least one first-type optical network unit (ONU), and at least one second-type ONU. Included is an OLT configured to implement a method comprising forwarding a first downstream data from a first-type OLT to at least one first-type ONU, and transmitting a second downstream data to at least one second-type ONU. Also included is a method comprising adding at least one second-type ONU to a passive optical network (PON) comprising a first-type OLT and at least one first-type ONU without removing the first-type OLT from the PON.

Claims

1. A central office apparatus comprising:

a first-type optical line terminal (OLT) component comprising a first-type optical transmitter and a first-type optical receiver; and

a second-type optical network unit (ONU) component,

wherein the apparatus is configured to couple to a first-type ONU, a second-type ONU, and a second-type OLT comprising a second-type optical transmitter and a second-type optical receiver, and

wherein the second-type ONU component is configured to transmit to the second-type OLT first upstream data that the second-type OLT recognizes and that is in the same format as second upstream data from the second-type ONU.

2. The central office apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first-type OLT component is substantially incompatible with the second-type ONU, and wherein the second-type OLT is substantially incompatible with the first-type ONU.

3. The central office apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first-type OLT component further comprises a first-type interface, and wherein the second-type OLT further comprises a second-type interface.

4. The central office apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an optical router component coupled to the second-type ONU component and the first-type OLT component, wherein the optical router is configured to couple to the second-type OLT, the first-type ONU, and the second-type ONU.

5. The central office apparatus of claim 4, wherein the optical router component comprises a four-port wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) configured to couple to the second-type OLT, the first-type ONU, and the second-type ONU.

6. The central office apparatus of claim 5, wherein the optical router component further comprises:

a first three-port WDM coupled to the four-port WDM and the first-type OLT component;

an optical splitter coupled to the first three-port WDM and the first-type OLT component;

an optical combiner coupled to the optical splitter and the second-type ONU component; and

a second three-port WDM coupled to the optical combiner, the second-type ONU component, and the four-port WDM.

7. The central office apparatus of claim 6, wherein the optical router component further comprises an optical amplifier located between the first three-port WDM and the optical splitter.

8. The central office apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first-type OLT component comprises a first-type OLT media access control (MAC) logic coupled to the first-type optical transmitter and the first-type optical receiver,

wherein the first optical transmitter is coupled to the first three-port WDM, and

wherein the first-type optical receiver is coupled to the optical splitter.

9. The central office apparatus of claim 6, wherein the second-type ONU component comprises:

a second second-type optical transmitter coupled to the optical combiner;

a second second-type optical receiver coupled to the second three-port WDM; and

a second-type ONU media access control (MAC) logic coupled to the second second-type optical transmitter and the second second-type optical receiver.

19. The central office apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first-type OLT component is substantially incompatible with the second-type ONU because the first-type OLT component communicates first data frames in a format suitable for a first protocol and the second-type ONU communicates second data frames in a format suitable for a second protocol.

20. The central office apparatus of claim 2, wherein the second-type OLT is substantially incompatible with the first-type ONU because the second-type OLT transmits downstream data at a second wavelength and the first-type ONU receives downstream data at a first wavelength.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a first-type optical line terminal (OLT) component comprising a first-type optical transmitter and a first-type optical receiver,

wherein the apparatus is configured to couple to a first-type optical network unit (ONU), a second-type ONU, and a second-type OLT comprising a second-type optical transmitter and a second-type optical receiver,

wherein the first-type OLT component is configured to couple to a second-type ONU component,

wherein the second-type ONU component is configured to send a first bandwidth allocation request for upstream data to the second-type OLT, receive a first allocated upstream bandwidth from the second-type OLT, and pass the first allocated upstream bandwidth to the first-type OLT component,

wherein the first-type OLT component is configured to receive a second bandwidth allocation request from the first-type ONU and allocate a second upstream bandwidth received from the second-type ONU component to the first-type ONU,

wherein the second-type ONU is configured to send a third bandwidth allocation request for upstream data to the second-type OLT, receive a third allocated upstream bandwidth from the second-type OLT, and use the third allocated upstream bandwidth to communicate with the second-type OLT, and

wherein the second-type ONU component and the second-type ONU include substantially identical ONU transmitters and ONU receivers.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first-type OLT component is substantially incompatible with the second-type ONU, and wherein the second-type OLT is substantially incompatible with the first-type ONU.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a first-type optical line terminal (OLT) component comprising a first-type optical transmitter and a first-type optical receiver; and

a second-type optical network unit (ONU) component electrically directly connected to the first-type OLT component,

wherein the apparatus is configured to couple to a first-type ONU, a second-type ONU, and a second-type OLT comprising a second-type optical transmitter and a second-type optical receiver,and,

wherein the second-type ONU component is configured to send to the second-type OLT upstream data frames comprising an upstream data bandwidth allocation request.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising an optical router component coupled to the second-type ONU component, the first-type OLT component, the second-type OLT, the first-type ONU, and the second-type ONU.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the optical router component comprises a four-port wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) configured to couple to the second-type OLT, the first-type ONU, and the second-type ONU.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the optical router component further comprises:

a first three-port WDM coupled to the four-port WDM and the first-type OLT component;

an optical splitter coupled to the first three-port WDM and the first-type OLT component;

an optical combiner coupled to the optical splitter and the second-type ONU component; and

a second three-port WDM coupled to the optical combiner, the second-type ONU component, and the four-port WDM.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the optical router component further comprises an optical amplifier located between the first three-port WDM and the optical splitter.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first-type OLT component comprises a first-type OLT media access control (MAC) logic coupled to the first-type optical transmitter and the first-type optical receiver,

wherein the first-type optical transmitter is coupled to the first three-port WDM, and

wherein the first-type optical receiver is coupled to the optical splitter.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second-type ONU component comprises:

a second second-type optical transmitter coupled to the optical combiner;

a second second-type optical receiver coupled to the second three-port WDM; and

a second-type ONU media access control (MAC) logic coupled to the second second-type optical transmitter and the second second-type optical receiver.