Patent ID: 9379840
Filing Date: 2016-06-28
CPC Classification: H04J,H04Q

Claim Text:
1. A method for scheduling traffic exchange in a passive optical network, PON, to reduce energy consumption, the method comprising: transmitting a first control message from an optical network unit, ONU, to an optical line terminal, OLT, when the ONU has at least one packet to transfer to the OLT, wherein the OLT is connected to plural ONUs; receiving at the ONU a second control message from the OLT instructing the ONU to maximize an overlap between upstream and downstream communications between the ONU and the OLT, wherein the second control message includes a predetermined future time at which to start the upstream communication, a predetermined time interval during which the ONU needs to have a transmitter and a receiver on, and a flag indicative of whether further messages are to be received from the OLT or not; and turning on the transmitter and the receiver of the ONU at the predetermined future time, wherein the transmitter and the receiver of the ONU are both turned off between the receiving of the second control message and the predetermined time to reduce the energy consumption.