ONU patching for efficient VoD service over Integrated Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access networks

Integrated Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) access networks which employ optical fiber subnetwork as back end give new vitality to high bandwidth provisional services. Video-on-Demand (VoD), as one of bandwidth-exhausted services, it is expected to be efficiently supported over FiWi access networks. However, considering that the ever-increasing concern on energy-saving FiWi access networks and the self-configured network connectivity of wireless subnetwork, it is challenged to guarantee a better level of VoD service over FiWi access networks. In this study, we will focus on addressing how to minimize worst-case playback delay (WPD) which can avoid unpleasant experience of wireless customers. Specifically, we first design a PON architecture supporting direct inter-ONU broadcasting. Then, under the constraint of the limited storage capacity of ONUs, an ONU patching scheme is proposed to achieve minimum WPD over FiWi access networks with the designed PON subnetwork. The simulations validate the efficiency of our work.