Systems and Methods for Advanced Power Management for Optical network Terminal Systems on Chip

• US 20140105603A1
• Filed: 09/17/2013
• Published: 04/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell International Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited), Marvell Israel Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Melts, Dimitry, Avivi, Amit, Kleinerman, Roman
• Granted Patent: US 9,344,215 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/67
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/08 Time-division multiplex systems
• 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 2011/0064 Arbitration, scheduling or medium access control aspects

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON). A system includes a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through the PON when in an active mode and to enter the sleep mode when not receiving data packets in the data plane. A system further includes a micro-controller, separate from the packet processor, configured to receive from an OLT operation and management (OAM) messages that are transmitted in a control plane, and to process the OAM messages by, selectively transmitting to a central office, without waking up the packet processor, an acknowledgement message, or waking up the packet processor to receive data packets in the data plane.

Claims

1. Customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON), comprising:

a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through the PON when in an active mode as well as transmit packets in a data plane towards the OLT through the PON, and to enter the sleep mode when not receiving data packets in the data plane;

a micro-controller, separate from the packet processor, configured to receive from an OLT operation and management (OAM) messages that are transmitted in a control plane, and to process the OAM messages by,

selectively transmitting to a central office, without waking up the packet processor, an acknowledgement message, or

waking up the packet processor to receive data packets in the data plane.

2. The PON CPE of claim 1, wherein the micro-controller is configured to periodically receive the OAM messages from the central office during periods when no data packets are being received from the central office.

3. The PON CPE of claim 2, wherein the OAM messages received from the central office are GPON physical layer operations and maintenance (PLOAM) messages.

4. The PON CPE of claim 2, wherein the OAM messages received from the central office are EPON multi-point control protocol (MPCP) messages.

5. The PON CPE of claim 2, wherein the micro-controller is configured to utilize the OAM messages and one or more acknowledgment, status, or report messages to maintain synchronization and connectivity between the CPE and the OLT according to a relevant protocol.

6. The PON CPE of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the OLT to a user device, wherein the packet processor is configured to command the plurality of peripheral devices to enter a low power mode.

7. The PON CPE of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the OLT to a user device, wherein the micro-controller is configured to command the plurality of peripheral devices to enter a low power mode.

8. The PON CPE of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the OLT to a user device, wherein when the plurality of peripheral devices are in a low power mode and when an OAM message is received that requests an acknowledgment associated with a particular peripheral device, the micro-controller is configured to function as a proxy for the particular peripheral device by transmitting an acknowledgment for the particular peripheral device without waking the particular peripheral device from the low power mode.

9. The PON CPE of claim 1, wherein the micro-controller is responsive to one or more tightly coupled memories that contain instructions and data for handling OAM messages from the OLT.

10. The PON CPE of claim 1, wherein the micro-controller is responsive to an instruction set tightly coupled memory and to a data tightly coupled memory, wherein the instruction set tightly coupled memory is configured to receive application instruction data from the packet processor during an initialization process, wherein the micro-controller is configured to use the application instruction data in transmitting the acknowledgment message and waking up the packet processor.

11. A method of communicating with an optical line terminal (OLT) through a passive optical network (PON), comprising:

receiving data packets at a PON customer premises equipment (CPE) device;

processing the received data packets at a packet processor of the PON CPE device;

placing the packet processor into a sleep mode when no data packets are received for at least a threshold period of time;

receiving, at the PON CPE device, an operation and management (OAM) message or upstream bandwidth allocation from the OLT;

transmitting one or more acknowledgment, status, or report messages to the OLT according to a relevant protocol in response to the OAM message using a micro-controller module that is a separate module from the packet processor without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode;

receiving a data packet or an indication of an incoming data packet at the PON CPE device;

using the micro-controller to wake the packet processor from the sleep mode in response to the receiving of the data packet or indication.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

periodically receiving additional OAM messages and transmitting additional one or more acknowledgments, status, or report messages as required by the relevant protocol during a period when no data packets are being received.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitting acknowledgement messages comprises processing at the micro-controller GPON OAM messages in the form of physical layer operations and maintenance (PLOAM) messages.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitting acknowledgement messages comprises processing at the micro-controller EPON OAM messages in the form of multi-point control protocol (MPCP) messages.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

maintaining synchronization and connectivity between the PON CPE and the OLT using the OAM messages and the acknowledgment, status, or report messages according to the relevant protocol.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using the packet processor to command a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the service provider network through the PON to a user device to enter a low power mode before the packet processor enters the sleep mode.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using the micro-controller to command a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the service provider network through the PON to a user device to enter a low power mode before the packet processor enters the sleep mode.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

placing a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the service provider through the PON to a user device into a low power mode;

receiving a particular OAM message that seeks an acknowledgment from a particular one of the peripheral devices;

transmitting an acknowledgment to the particular OAM message from the micro-controller without waking the particular peripheral device from the low power mode, wherein the micro-controller acts as a proxy for the particular peripheral device in transmitting the acknowledgment to the particular OAM message.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using the micro-controller to access instructions and data from one or more tightly coupled memories for transmitting one or more acknowledgment, status, or report messages to the OLT according to the relevant protocol.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using the micro-controller without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode in order to generate and transmit idle frames and/or messages in response to the corresponding upstream bandwidth allocation as mandated by the relevant PON protocol, when there is no user traffic to send to the OLT

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

initializing the micro-controller, wherein initializing the micro-controller includes populating one of the one or more tightly coupled memories with instruction data from the packet processor.

22. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting idle frames and/or messages to the OLT according to the relevant PON protocol in response to the corresponding upstream bandwidth allocation received from the OLT, using a micro-controller module that is a separate module from the packet processor without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode;