ICTON 2014 Tu.B3.

Layer 2 Redesign for Metro-Access Next Generation PON

Eduardo Tommy López, Victor Polo, J.A. Lázaro, Member, IEEE, and Josep Prat, Member, IEEE
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Jordi Girona 1-3, Barcelona, 08034 Spain
Tel: +34-93-401-7179; Fax: +34-93-401-7200; e-mail: tommy.lopez@tsc.upc.edu
ABSTRACT
Necessary modifications and extensions into Layer 2 of the actual PON access are necessary in order to meet
new requirements from services providers and users. We propose a flexible Transmission Convergence (TC)
Layer architecture for Metro-Access next generation long-reach Greenfield really-passive PON network,
compatible with GPON/XGPON and with support for multi-operator/multi-service at internetworking multilevel.
This proposed architecture provides future Access-Core integration network.
Keywords: Optical Communications, Passive Optical Networks (PON), Layer 2, Transmission Convergence
(TC) Layer, Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), Access-Core integration.

1. INTRODUCTION
The Transmission Convergence (TC) layer in the Link layer of the OSI model specifies the formats and
encapsulation procedures from/to upper layer for its transport via the optical distribution network (ODN) and for
the medium access control (MAC) of the ONUs. Solutions have been presented for FSAN through XG-PON [1]
to improve bandwidth respect than GPON [2]. Nevertheless, other requirement that includes long reach and
support capabilities (multi-operator/multi-service), as well as cost-effective architectures, enhanced performance
of access nodes and improved bandwidth assignments need to be satisfied. Also, PON deployments have been
aiming to combine the capacity of metro and access networks in the last mile and the integration with the Core
network services. To get this whole, flexgrid at the core is a promising technology [3]. Fig. 1 shows a PHY
scenario for this work, based on a Metro-Access WDM/TDM long reach really-passive, single-fibre/single-
wavelength network with downstream carrier reuse (reflective ONUs), for a cost-effective implementation [4].
Metro/Access Network RN
R/S
S/R rONU
WDM TDM UNI
OLT WDM RN
ring Tree
Core
SNI R’/S’ S’/R’ XG-ONU
Network R/S
Flexgrid XG-OLT RN
S/R
Mid-Spam
GPON/XG_PON Overlay with a Model from
ODN Passive ODN
mid span extender G.987.1 Rec
Extender

Figure 1. A next generation PON access-core model with ODN based on WDM/TDM.

2. NG-PON LAYER 2 REQUIREMENTS

Requirements from provider services and users for the new generation networks should attend to different
aspects, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Requirements and provisions hoped from the NG-PON Layer 1/Layer 2.
Provisions
Requirements
Layer 1 Layer 2
Serve the increased More ONUs per wavelength (TDM), more users/PON An agile ONU initialization.
demands (UDWDM) To simplify the ranging mechanism
Different topologies WDM ring and TDM tree linked Wavelength allocation algorithm (in WDM)
integration at the ODN and DBA (in TDM) synchronization
Passive and Power Really passive remote nodes with EDF remote Control of the pump Lasers
efficient (green) ODN pumping and extra Raman amplification from the OLT.
Long-reach (up to 100 Mid spam passive extenders To simplify the ranging mechanism.
km) Modify the PHY adaptation sub-layer
Cost-efficient Reflective colourless ONUs, Bidirectional networks Modify the PHY adaptation sub-layer
implementation one fibre/one-wavelength
Support for multi- Network interfaces (NNI) Modify the Service adaptation sub-layer for
operator/multi-service open network infrastructure
Aggregation and Tuneable Remote Nodes Control of the remote nodes. Modify the
overlaying Service adaptation sub-layer.

3. TC SUB-LAYERS: REDESIGN AND ADAPTATION

Actual PON access (GPON/XGPON) requires a redesign of its TC layer [5-6]. It is mandatory to cover the
requirements of the NG-PON. Formats and fields of the Service Adaptation, Framing and PHY adaptation sub-
layers must be optimized for this target. Fig. 2 shows the architecture of the TC layer into the OSI reference
model context.

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ICTON 2014 Tu.B3.6

OSI User Service

model premises a) Provider
Metro/Core Clients
Layer Applications ONU MIB ONU MIB Applications Ethernet OMCI
5,6,7
SNMP
OMCI OMCI Clients Client
OMCC OMCC SNMP

Layer
4
TCP/UDP
(RTP,RTCP)
TCP/UDP
(RTP,RTCP)
TC Layer
b)
Ethernet ONU OLT Ethernet Service Adaptation
Interface
Layer
3
IP Interface IP Sublayer
DiffServ DiffServ
Framing Sublayer
OMCI Service OMCI Service
Adapter Adapter
Adaptation Adaptation
QoS QoS
PHY Adaptation Sublayer
Sublayer Sublayer XG-PON1 XGEM Frame
GEM TC Adapter GEM TC Adapter
Header - 8 Bytes Payload
Layer
Eth Eth PLOAM US-BW Framing PLOAM DBA Framing Eth Eth
2 Processor Manag. Processor Control Key HEC
MAC MAC Sublayer TC Sublayer MAC PLI
Fragment Payload
MAC Ind Port ID Options LF
14 1 13
TC Framing TC Framing
bits
2 16 bits 18 bits bit
bits
(max. 214 Bytes)
bits
PHY Adaptation PHY Adaptation
Sublayer Sublayer
NG-GEM Frame
FEC, Scrambling, SERDES FEC, Scrambling, SERDES
Key Prot
PLI PT QoS HEC
Eth Eth Eth Eth Ind Port ID ID SN LF
Fragment Payload
PHY Layer PHY Layer 14 3 4 1 13
Layer PMD PMD PMD PMD bits
2 16 bits 3
bits bits
8 bits bit
Bits (max. 214 Bytes)
1 bits bits
UNI PON ODN SNI
10/100/1000 Base-T 10-GEth - XFP
New fields

Figure 2: a) NG-PON architecture into the OSI reference model; b) XGEM Format and proposed NG-GEM with new fields
to support NG-PON.
3.1 Service Adaptation Sub-layer
It guarantees a well-defined service interface for the upper layers based on delineation of the user data frames
and port identification for multiplexing on transparent fashion for using GEM (GPON Encapsulation Method).
It is a variable-length framing mechanism (header is of fixed length) for transparent encapsulation and
connection-oriented transportation. In downstream (DS), continuous frames are transmitted. In upstream (US),
burst frames are transmitted using the configured allocation time. We propose NG-GEM consistent with XGEM
from XG-PON. The payload maintains the same format, but new fields are included at header as a function of the
Table 1 requirements. Fig. 2b shows XGEM frame [6] and the new format proposed to NG-GEM.
x Protocol ID field (3-bits). To identify information of the protocols used in the upper layers, especially on the
metro/core network (Ethernet, MPLS, SDH/SONET, ATM, GMPLS, others) connected to the PON. Up to
8 protocol IDs could be identified. It extends the service capabilities of a PON: Multi-protocol management;
overlay capacity over NG-PON from different service providers working on metro/core network protocols;
control and management of multiple services (multi-services capability); and control and management of the
contents from different operators (multi-operator capability).
x PT (payload type) field (3-bits). To indicate information of the following payload contents (Ethernet, OMCI,
others). So, up to 8 different payload types can be differentiated.
x QoS (Quality-of Service) field (4-bits). For optimizing services as the real-time transmissions, security, QoS
and other higher layer services. Management of quality of services (QoS) for the applications carried between
the Ethernet frames or from other link protocols.
x Sequence Number (SN) field (8-bits). For a better sequence of the packets received, considering the long
reach nature of the NG-PON and the latency. Up to 256 information sequences could be maintained.
3.2 Framing Sub-layer
It supports the functions of frame/burst encapsulation. The payload is based on GEM frames. The header
includes messages of operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) and medium access control (MAC).
Fig. 3a shows the structure of the frame built by the Framing sub-layer for DS transmission.
GEM
frame
Byte Field Description
TC Layer
XG-PON1 Framing Frame H
GEM 1-2 ONU-ID It specifies the message recipient in
payload
Framing Header the DS direction or the message
Service Adaptation Sublayer sender in the US direction.
BW map PLOAM HEC
BW map PLOAMd Payload
Length count 13
N*8 Bytes P*48 Bytes K*4 Bytes 3 Message An 8-bit field that indicates the type
Framing Sublayer 11 bits 8 bits bits
of the message and defines the
type ID
NG-Framing Frame
semantics of the message payload.
PHY Adaptation Sublayer
4 Sequence An 8-bit field containing a sequence
BW map PLOAM PLOAM HEC
Length count Length 13
BW map PLOAMd Payload Number counter that is used to ensure
PHY Layer N*8 Bytes Q*8 Bytes R*4 Bytes
10 bits 6 bits 3 bits bits robustness of the PLOAM channel.
New fields 5-32 Message It is a variable field as a function of
Content the message content. So, a PLOAM
can reach 8, 16, 24 or 32-bytes

Figure 3: a) DS frame header and changes respect to XGPON; b) Proposed PLOAM message structure for the new NG-PON
The header consists of two variable size partitions: the bandwidth map (BWmap) and PLOAM (PLOAMd), and
four fields of fixed size. The proposed PLOAM has a variable length (8, 16, 24 or 32-bytes) instead of a fixed
length of 48-bytes (XGPON) [6]. This allows releasing more space in the header to favour the payload section,

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ICTON 2014 Tu.B3.6

increasing efficiency per transmitted frame (1.5 and 6 times with respect to XG-PON). Also, a little PLOAMd
allows a faster ONU initialization. A vector of two fields: PLOAM count (6-bits) and PLOAM length (3-bits) will
be required to specify the number of PLOAMs and their lengths. New PLOAM format is shown in Fig. 3b.
The BWmap is a series of 8-byte allocation structures, in part similar to XGTC [1].
The US burst from an ONU consists of a burst header and one or more BW allocation intervals (according to
the BWmap), with a specific Alloc-ID. Fig. 4a shows the US burst in XGPON and the proposed NG-framing
frame. It incorporates Burst Status field as an indicator of the messages present into burst to know if the burst
carries Dynamic Bandwidth Report US (DBRu) and/or PLOAMu messages, and their respective lengths,
allowing fast decodification. The DBRu field sends traffic status to OLT in order to enable DBA computation.
3.3 PHY Adaptation Sub-layer
It is responsible for preparing the STC frame for the PHY layer, providing physical synchronization, FEC and
scrambling for the DS and US transmission. The most critical situation is in upstream transmission. Here, each
ONU transmits PHY bursts in the corresponding allocation time and remains idle in-between the bursts.
It consists of an US physical synchronization block (PSBu) and a PHY burst payload (TC burst + FEC +
scrambled), as shown in Fig. 4b. Burst timing and duration is controlled by the OLT by means of BWmap. PSBu
contains Preamble and Delimiter fields. This overhead time is used to synchronize rONU TX, added timing drift
tolerance, signal amplitude recovery, signal phase recovery (clock recovery), and start of burst delimitation.
Guard Guard
XG-PON1 Framing Frame Time Time
Upstream framing burst
Allocation #1 Allocation #2 PHY burst PHY burst PHY burst PHY burst

OLT PSBu Payload PSBu Payload PSBu Payload

Framing
Header
DBRu Payload DBRu Payload trailer

ONU PLOAMu Buf

Ind HEC CRC BIP
ID 0 or 48 Occ
9 bits 13 bits 1 byte 4 bytes
10 bits Bytes 3 bytes

NG-Framing Frame
ONU 1 PSBu Payload PSBu Payload
Framing
Header
DBRu Payload DBRu Payload trailer PHY burst
PHY
Adaptation
ONU Burst Buf Sub-layer
ID Status
HEC PLOAMu
Occ
CRC BIP ONU i PSBu Payload
13 bits N*8 Bytes 1 byte 4 bytes
12 bits 7 bits 3 bytes
US PHY frame (125us) US PHY frame (125us)
(38880 bytes @2.488Gbps)
PLOAMu DBRu DG
Length status Flag
3 bits 3 bits 1 bit Preamble Delimiter

Figure 4: a) Upstream framing burst structures in XGPON, and changes for NG-Framing frame; b) PHY US transmission.
The length and pattern of preamble and delimiter of this proposal is shown in Fig. 5a. The time to each process is
determined by experimental considerations, some based on constraint equations. Although not part of PSBu,
BWmap allows suitable guard time (tg) between US bursts from different ONUs to prevent collisions. It fits the
RSOA Tx enable/RSOA Tx disable times and includes the margin for the individual ONU TX drift tolerance (tu).
In XGPON, the minimum tg is 64 bits (20 km) [6]. The constraint equations with which the OLT must comply
are tg > tRSOAon + tu, and tg > tRSOAoff + tu [5]. The tu is a timing uncertainty. Due to the long distances (100 km
using SSMF), the wavelength operation (third window) and 10 Gbps TX, chromatic dispersion impact on the
pulse broadening and consequently inter-symbolic interference (ISI), can occur. By considering tu basically as
pulse broadening and the chromatic dispersion D1550=17 SV QPāNP DQGǻȜWKe spectral width of the emitter:
tu = D1550 · Lmax āǻȜ

Preamble+Delimiter Data Payload

Guard Time

Figure 5: a) Proposal for Guard Time, Preamble and Delimiter structure in NG-PON networks (100 km); b) US burst test
with a PSBu of 128 ns that was obtained in our lab.
)RU ǻȜ = 0.2 nm, the spectral width of a RSOA, then tu = 0.34 ns. Also, considering a typical RSOA with
commercial parameter values: Lcavity = 600 μm (cavity length) and G = 21 dB; then, phase shifting at the ONU
output in t = tRSOAon, is ǻt = 2·Lcavity/Vg= 6 ps; with Vg – group velocity. So, RSOA response time can be
considered negligible. Now, considering RSOA initialization from the off-state and additional delays due to
associated circuitry, tRSOAon § 10 ns. This value was obtained in practical measures. So, tg > 10 ns + 0.34 ns
= 10.34 ns. For an US bit rate 2.48832 Gbps, this corresponds to tg(bits) > 25.8 bits. By incrementing the
reliability above 50%, hence tg(bits) = 40 bits. Finally, guard time is fixed in 80 bits (2· tg).

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ICTON 2014 Tu.B3.6

In the preamble time (tp), the signal level is recovered in the first 32 bits, using controlled runs of identical digits
(16 bits “1”/16 bits “0”). In this way the decision threshold is fixed. The signal clock phase is recovered using
a maximum transition density pattern in the last 128 bits of the preamble. Finally, the 160-bit pattern preamble
proposal is 0xFFFF0000AAAA…..AA.
During the delimiter time (td), a simple relationship between the number of bits in the delimiter (N) and the
number of bit errors tolerated (E) is E = int(N/4 – 1 [5]. Given a BER, the probability of a severely errored burst
(Pseb) is given by Pseb = (N / (E + 1))·BER E+1. So, a reasonable Pseb= 1.1E-25 is obtained for 32 bits.
With these considerations, the recommended allocations for the PSBu for 100 km are given in Table 2.
Figure 5b shows an US burst test with a PSBu of 128 ns that was obtained in our lab.
Table 2. Proposal of PSBu values for NG-PON network
Upstream RSOA Tx RSOA Tx Guard Preamble Delimiter Total
data rate enable disable time time time time
2.48832(Gbit/s) (tRSOAon+tu) (tRSOAoff+tu) (tg) (tp) (td) (tT)
bits 40 40 80 160 32 272
Time (ns) 32.15 64.3 12.86 109.3
Maximum Maximum Minimum Suggested Suggested Suggested

4. MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL OPTIMIZATION

During the initialization processes from a new ONU, the OLT must temporarily suppress US-TX by the in-
service ONUs to avoid collisions (quiet window (QW) state). In XG-PON two QW are used (to implement Serial
Number (SN) and Ranging processes) [6]. While for XG-PON 20 km reach this procedure is not very critical, for
a 100 km NG-PON an efficient method is mandatory.
In this work, an agile ONU activation process by simplification of the ranging state which incorporates the
Ranging process together with the Parameter Initialization is shown. This mechanism reduces to one the use of
a QW in the ONU initialization process, by improving the efficiency. Even so, a QW instance penalizes the
system. So, an optimization to mitigate this issue is shown in Fig. 6. In XGPON, QW mechanism affects up to
eight BWmaps during ONU activation. Our optimization reduces the impact of the QW to five BWmaps in the
most critical ODN scenario (100 km), improving in 44% the performance with respect to XG-PON (20 km).
nearest farthest

Timer
OLT ONU ONU
ONU Starting expires L = 80 km Dmax=20km
Process
ONU searches for PSync

SN
gra
Sync nt + Delay Propagation

“Listen” Attained Deactivate ope (400 us)

Offset
burst profile ONU_ID BW nQ QW
request ma W
parameters p+
DB
Loss of Ru
=1
Sync
ONU Parameter + clo ONU Response Time
se (34 us)
Initialization and QW Delay Dmax
Ranging Process 125us
Propagation
(100 us) QW
Receive SN grant ONU Response
Only One Time variation
Send SN_ONU PLOAMu Quiet Window +
Timer <OLT Ranging Calculus> Maximum random
delay
expires Receive ONU_ID (2 us + 6.4 us)
Receive Ranging_Time PLOAM Mu
LOA EqD

Failure ONUP Start Time

Process Sync ONU_ID SN_ 125us

restored Alloc_ID
ONU attempts to
XGEM port_ID
reestablish Sync EqD assigned
125us
e
Operation Process fram
Loss of
Receive BW-map grant US
Sync
Send Registration_PLOAM
in the first burst

Figure 6. ONU activation process optimization proposal: a) ONU Activation processes flow; b) Practical values.

5. CONCLUSIONS
In this work, a Layer 2 extension for NG-PON TC is presented as an answer to the PHY requirements. So, long
reach transmission with multi-protocol management overlay transmission, multi-services, and multi-operator
capability can be deployable. Calculations to obtain a PSBu consistent with Metro-Access and agile ONU
activation by ranging simplification improve 44% the XG-PON performance.

REFERENCES
[1] ITU-T; “G.987.1 10 Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (XG-PON): General Requirements”; Geneva, Jan. 2010.
[2] ITU-T G.984.2 “Gigabit-capable PON (G-PON): Physical Media Dependent (PMD) Layer Spec”. Nov. 10, 005.
[3] M. Ruiz et al.: “Planning fixed to flexgrid gradual migration: drivers and open issues”, IEEE Communications
Magazine, Jan. 2014, vol. 52, no.1, pp. 70-76.
[4] J. Prat et al.: "Results from EU Project SARDANA on 10G extended reach WDM PONs", OSA, OFC/ NFOEC 2010.
[5] ITU-T G.984.3; “G-PON: Transmission convergence (TC) specifications”, Feb. 2004.
[6] ITU-T G.987.3; “XG-PON: Transmission convergence (TC) specifications”, Oct. 2010.