Exponential growth in the volume of wireless data, boosted by the growing popularity of mobile devices, such as smartphone and tablets, has forced the telecommunication industries to rethink the way networks are currently designed, and to focus on the development of high-capacity mobile broadband networks. In response to this challenge, researchers have been working toward the development of an integrated wireless optical broadband access network. Two major candidate technologies, which are currently known for their high capacity as well as quality of service (QoS) for multimedia traffic, are passive optical networks (PON), and fourth generation (4G) wireless networks. PON is a wired access technology, well known for its cost efficiency and high capacity; whereas 4G is a wireless broadband access technology, which has achieved broad market acceptance because of its ease of deployment, ability to offer mobility, and its cost efficiency. Integration of PON and 4G technologies in the form of wireless-optical broadband access networks, offers advantages, such as extension of networks in rural areas, support for mobile broadband services, and quick deployment of broadband networks. These two technologies however, have different design architectures for handling broadband services that require quality of service. For example, 4G networks use traffic classification for supporting different QoS demands, whereas the PON architecture has no such mechanism to differentiate between types of traffic. These two technologies also differ in their power saving mechanisms. In this paper, we propose a service class mapping for the integrated PON-4G network, which is based on the M/G/1 queuing model. We also propose a class-based power saving mechanism which significantly improves the sleep period for the integrated optical wireless unit, without compromising support for QoS. Results indicate that our proposed class-based power saving scheme reduces power consumption by up to 80%, and maintains the QoS within the requirements of the service level agreement.

Growing energy demands in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector have been recognized as a major challenge worldwide. Researchers have been actively working to address this challenge, and the major focus centers around improving the energy efficiency of access networks, which are known for consuming about three-quarters of the total network power. Among various access networks, the hybrid wireless-optical broadband access network (WOBAN), which combines a passive optical network (PON) with broadband wireless technology, is highly regarded for its enormous capacity, cost efficiency, and ease of deployment. To develop a green WOBAN, it is important to focus on reducing its power consumption, and in this work, we present an efficient resource management technique for WOBAN that reduces the power consumption of the optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network unit (ONU) by introducing sleep modes for the OLT and ONU, based on the service class and traffic load. Moreover, it considers the quality-of-service requirement of each service class. Simulation results confirm that our proposed solution can save a significant amount of power in the WOBAN network without sacrificing the quality of service of end applications.

The necessity to support the rapidly growing high speed broadband services requires the use of latest technologies and quality of service (QoS) control techniques. Two such technologies include Fourth Generation (4G) wireless and New Generation Passive Optical Networks (NG PON). 4G communication technology encompasses both wireless and cellular systems, which aims to provide real-time voice, video and Internet services to the end user with high QoS. Moreover, it offers high throughput and supports mobility. A passive optical network (PON) is a reliable back haul technology, which can provide high bandwidth and is highly cost effective. The combination of 4G with NG-PON creates an access network that is cost efficient, reliable, flexible as well as facilitating mobility and ubiquity. However, this integration has many challenges such as maintaining the QoS of whole network. In this paper, we propose the NG PON as an alternative solution for the point to point fiber in the 4G centralized co-ordinated Multi-Point (COMP) transmission and reception. This architecture is for joint transmission downlink COMP which benefits from the broadcasting transmission in the downlink of PON. Moreover, it serves both fixed and mobile stations. The simulation compares the capital cost of using NG PON against point to point fibre in COMP architecture. The results reveal that up to 80 percent cost reduction can be achieved by using the proposed solution.

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