Method for Reducing Power Consumption of a Passive Optical Network

摘要

A method for reducing energy consumption of a passive optical network includes optical network units of the network which infer their downstream queue status rather than being explicitly notified by an optical line terminal of the network. Based on the inferred queue status, the optical network units make their own sleep mode decisions without assistance from optical line terminal. Both downstream traffic inference and sleep decision making at the optical network units are based on common information possessed by optical line terminal and optical network units. Accordingly, the optical line terminal can accurately infer the status of each optical network unit if the sleep control scheme implemented at an optical network unit is known by the optical line terminal.