PON Downlink Scheduling With Advance ONU Reception Timing

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Optical network units (ONUs) face challenges in efficiently receiving downlink services due to unpredictable scheduling results in existing TDM mechanisms, which are exacerbated by increasing line rates, diverse service requirements, and the need for time division duplex coexistence between different generations of PONs.

Innovation Solution

The optical line terminal (OLT) shares a downlink time-division scheduling result with ONUs, including sending moments of downlink services, to enable efficient reception by predicting service traffic, characteristics, and external inputs, and the ONU receives the services according to this scheduling result.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If priority-based or weight-based scheduling is used in downlink TDM, then services can be transmitted, but scheduling results are unpredictable and cannot be given in advance

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepredictability of scheduling resultsVSAvoidservice reception efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by having the OLT calculate and notify the ONU of the downlink scheduling result in advance before actual service transmission. The scheduling result includes predetermined sending moments and durations for each service, allowing the ONU to prepare its receiving resources beforehand. This transforms the unpredictable real-time scheduling into a predictable advance notification mechanism, enabling the ONU to efficiently receive services at the scheduled moments without wasting resources on unscheduled transmissions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Power

If line rate is continuously improved, then bandwidth capacity increases, but ONU receiving capability requirements increase and energy consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebandwidth capacityVSAvoidONU energy consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
PowerVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies the extraction principle by having the OLT identify and extract only the specific time slots and services that the ONU actually needs to receive. Instead of the ONU continuously monitoring and processing all downlink transmissions, the advance scheduling notification allows the ONU to extract only the relevant services at their predetermined sending moments. This significantly reduces ONU energy consumption by eliminating unnecessary reception operations while maintaining full bandwidth capacity for services that do need to be received.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Quantity of substance

If different generations of PONs use the same wavelengths, then wavelength resources are optimized, but time division duplex coexistence becomes more complex

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvewavelength resource utilizationVSAvoidtime division duplex coexistence complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies segmentation by dividing the downlink transmission time into distinct time slots, where each slot is dedicated to specific services for specific ONUs. The advance scheduling notification clearly defines which time slots contain which services, enabling different generations of PONs to share wavelengths without interference. This temporal segmentation simplifies the coexistence complexity by providing clear time-domain separation, allowing the system to optimize wavelength resources across multiple PON generations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP4730835A1Downlink service transmitting method and device, downlink service receiving method and device, storage medium, and electronic device
Publication Date: 2026.04.22 ZTE CORP
  • EP4730835A1 patent drawingFigure 1~3
  • EP4730835A1 patent drawingFigure 4~5
  • EP4730835A1 patent drawingFigure 6~8

AI summary

Provided are a method and apparatus for sending a downlink service, a method and apparatus for receiving a downlink service, a storage medium, and an electronic apparatus. The method for sending a downlink service includes: OLT shares a downlink time-division scheduling result of the downlink service with an ONU according to a first specified mode, wherein the downlink time-division scheduling result at least includes sending moments of one or more downlink services; and the OLT sends the downlink service according to the downlink time-division scheduling result.