METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXTENDING THE NUMBER OF OPTICAL NETWORK UNITS IN A PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK

摘要

The disclosure provides a mechanism for extending the number of Optical Networks (ONU) in a Passive Optical Network (PON). The mechanism extends the ONU amount by using the reserved bits or deprecated fields in a frame header of a Transmission Convergence frame as at least one additional ONU-ID fields, wherein the at least one additional ONU-ID field and the original ONU-ID field are combined to identify one of the ONUs. This mechanism enables fast upgrade of current PON system to serve more ONUs.