We have already proposed a Gigabit Ethernet-Optical Switched Access Network (GE-OSAN) architecture that realizes longer transmission distances and achieves higher security than the conventional Passive Optical Network (PON). To confirm the technical feasibility of the architecture, we introduce here a GE-OSAN prototype system for downstream transmission. We present the Optical Switching Module (OSM), which uses (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 (PLZT) optical packet switches, and show that it realizes switching within 10 ns of the designed position in the Inter-Frame Gap (IFG). We also introduce an Optical Network Unit (ONU) with optical burst receiver that uses off-the-shelf commercial devices to reduce its cost; two types of an optical to electrical signal (O/E) converter are implemented for performance comparison. After testing both of them, we select the one that satisfies our acquisition time requirement of 64 ns.

An Optical Line Terminal (OLT) needs to find and register newly connected Optical Network Units (ONUs) in the proposed Ethernet Optical Switched Access Network (E-OSAN) as well as the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (E-PON). In this discovery process, OLT measures round trip time (RTT) between OLT and each ONU and then assigns a Logical Link Identification (LLID) to each ONU. For E-OSAN, the conventional discovery method takes up to N discovery periods for OLT to register all ONUs, where N denotes the number of switch ports of the Optical Switching Module (OSM). This paper proposes an efficient method that completes discovery in just one period. This paper also evaluates the maximum ranging completion time of the proposed discovery method in a comparison with E-PON.

This paper discusses an ATM based access system for a broadband access network that provides flexible and cost effective multimedia services for mass consumption including households. The access system proposed herein uses ATM-PDS subscriber transmission technologies, thus enabling multiple users to share a single fiber resource while transmitting or receiving multimedia information within the broadband network. The system also has virtual channel concentration function by using the bearer connection control protocol being studied for VB5. 2 interface in the ITU-T. We show that the virtual channel concentration function reduces the access cost per user. We also discuss multiple QoS control methods in the system to provide multiple services efficiently. This paper evaluates two methods to handle ABR class and UBR class traffic: shared bandwidth with preferred ABR method, and guaranteed bandwidth with overriding method. The result indicates that when using the shared bandwidth with preferred ABR method for the access system, ABR throughput and UBR throughput per VC depend on the proportion of the number of ABR-VC connections to the total active VCs and on the each buffer size in the access system. And it is difficult to control ABR-VC and UBR-VC throughputs in the access network by using the shared bandwidth with preferred ABR method, which simple mechanism. With the guaranteed bandwidth with overriding method, while ABR-VC throughput and UBR-VC throughput also depend on the proportion of ABR-VCs to the total VCs and on the buffer size, it can offer the minimum guaranteed throughput to the UBR traffic. The result shows the method is effective for easy service provisioning.

Ad hoc networking uses wireless technologies to construct networks with no physical infrastructure and so are expected to provide instant networking in areas such as disaster recovery sites and inter-vehicle communication. Unlike conventional wired networks services, services in ad hoc networks are easily disrupted by the frequent changes in traffic and topology. Therefore, solutions to assure the Quality of Services (QoS) in ad hoc networks are different from the conventional ones used in wired networks. In this paper, we propose a new queue management scheme, Interference Drop Scheme (IDS) for ad hoc networks. In the conventional queue management approaches such as FIFO (First-in First-out) and RED (Random Early Detection), a queue is usually managed by a queue length limit. FIFO discards packets according to the queue limit, and RED discards packets in an early and random fashion. IDS, on the other hand, manages the queue according to wireless interference time, which increases as the number of contentions in the MAC layer increases. When there are many MAC contentions, IDS discards TCP data packets. By observing the interference time and discarding TCP data packets, our simulation results show that IDS improves TCP performance and reduces QoS violations in UDP in ad hoc networks with chain, grid, and random topologies. Our simulation results also demonstrate that wireless interference time is a better metric than queue length limit for queue management in multi-hop ad hoc networks.

To realize economical optical burst signal receivers for the Optical Network Unit (ONU) of the Ethernet Optical Switched Access Network (E-OSAN), we previously implemented optical burst receivers with AC-coupling and DC-coupling using off-the-shelf components, and showed that the former offers better performance. This paper proposes a new optical burst signal receiver that uses the transfer function, Gn(s) = 1-Hn(s), where Hn(s) denotes a Bessel filter transfer function of order n. We also present a method for designing the proposed receiver and clarify that it has better performance than the conventional AC-coupling one. We then present an LCR circuit synthesis of Gn(s), which is necessary to actually implement a burst receiver based on the proposal.

This paper introduces the design of an Optical Switching Module (OSM) for our newly proposed Gigabit Ethernet Optical Switched Access Network (GE-OSAN) architecture that uses the Multi-Point Control Protocol (MPCP), defined in IEEE 802.3ah. We outline the GE-OSAN architecture to clarify OSM's role in the network. We offer an OSM configuration that has the basic functions needed to realize downstream and upstream high-speed data services in GE-OSAN. We clarify the OSM optical switching time that allows GE-OSAN to achieve the same throughput as GE-PON. Our survey of currently available optical switches identifies the optical packet switches that can meet this switching time requirement. We evaluate OSM insertion loss with these switches. We propose an OSM configuration that has a regeneration function as well as the basic ones to realize wider network configurations that can lead to a reduction in overall system costs. In addition, we present OSM configurations that have broadcast and multicast functions as well as the basic ones so that GE-OSAN can support broadcast and multicast video services to equal and exceed GE-PON.

This paper proposes a new optical access network architecture that differs from those of conventional Point-to-Point (PP) and Passive Optical Networks (PON). The proposed architecture, Optical Switched Access Network (OSAN), uses Optical Switching Modules (OSMs) that connect an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) to Optical Network Units (ONUs) in a virtual point to point configuration so that it offers the merits of both PP and PON while overcoming their demerits. Each OSM optically switches packets of variable length one by one under electrical control. To allow the elimination of optical buffers from OSM, OSAN uses the Multi-Point Control Protocol (MPCP) defined in IEEE 802.3ah. We evaluate the transmission distances between OLT and ONUs, and consider a network synchronization scheme and discovery mechanism that supports MPCP.