A proposal for an SDN-based SIEPON architecture

Abstract

Passive Optical Network (PON) elements such as Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Units (ONUs) are currently managed by legacy, non-flexible network management systems. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new networking paradigm that improves the operation and management of networks. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture, based on the SDN concept, for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON) that includes the Service Interoperability (SIEPON) standard. In our proposal the OLT is partially virtualized and some of its functionalities are allocated to the core network management system, while the OLT itself is replaced by an OpenFlow (OF) switch. A new MultiPoint MAC Control sublayer extension based on the OpenFlow protocol is presented. The controller is designed to effectively manage and enhance the resource utilization, flow monitoring, bandwidth assignment, quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees, and energy management of the optical network access. The OpenFlow switch is extended with synchronous ports to keep the time-critical nature of the EPON network. OpenFlow messages are also extended with new functionalities to implement the concept of EPON Service Paths (ESPs). Our simulation-based results demonstrate the effectiveness of the new architecture, while keeping similar or improved performance compared to legacy PONs, in terms of delay and throughput.

Analysis of the Thermal Behavior of an Earthbag Building in Mediterranean Continental Climate: Monitoring and Simulation

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An Energy-Efficient Distributed Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation Algorithm for Passive Optical Access Networks

“…Our current work focuses on refining the algorithm, testing it in more complex traffic conditions, and adding it to an SDN-based management plane such as the one developed in [24,25], together with the one proposed in [26], in order to obtain an integrated SDN control plane for PON networks in scenarios such as 5G backhaul.…”

An Integrated SDN-Based Architecture for Passive Optical Networks

“…To the best of our knowledge, Refs. [22,23] are the only works that tackle the topic of how to adapt the SIEPON standard to the SDN architecture. Reference [22] describes methods for enabling nodes to exchange information between a management protocol and other protocols, including control plane and data plane interfaces to support SDN.…”

“…Reference [22] describes methods for enabling nodes to exchange information between a management protocol and other protocols, including control plane and data plane interfaces to support SDN. Reference [23] expands the work presented in [17], converting the OLT into an OpenFlow switch, and describes the extensions to make it compatible with the SIEPON architecture, and thus reach the goal of having a virtualized, simplified and centralized management system migrated to the SDN controller.…”

“…This work builds on [17] and expands [23] with more details and results. We present a novel SDN-SIEPON architecture based able to decouple, virtualize, and simplify the management and operation of the OLT and OAM functions, and opens the way for multi-tenant and multi-provider optical access networks, where various service providers use the same basic infrastructure.…”