Energy Saving via Dynamic Wavelength Sharing in TWDM-PON

Time- and wavelength-division multiplexed passive optical network allows wavelength sharing by optical network units (ONUs) in a time-division multiplexing fashion. When ONUs are lightly loaded, they can share fewer wavelengths to reduce energy consumption. In such a dynamic system, the configuration of wavelength sharing should adapt to the traffic changes for energy saving and load balancing (which affects the quality of service). However, going from one configuration to another is nontrivial, as it usually involves wavelength reassignment and potential service disruptions. The optimization and algorithm design have to account for such reconfiguration (along with other aspects). In this study, we have developed optimization models and online algorithms that incorporate the reconfiguration dimension. Various underlying tradeoffs (e.g., energy saving versus reconfiguration and load balancing versus reconfiguration) are investigated for both static planning and dynamic operations.