Patent ID: 9031408
Filing Date: 2015-05-12
Classification: H04J

Abstract:
1. A method of providing advertisements to optical network units (ONUs) by an optical line terminal (OLT), wherein the advertisements enable the ONUs to identify free channels from a plurality of wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) channels in a passive optical network (PON), the method comprising the steps of: transmitting from the OLT to the ONUs an advertisement identifying a free channel for each of a plurality of incompatible channel (ICH) groups, the characteristics of the ICH group being included in the advertisement, wherein each of the ICH groups has a different set of supported capabilities; receiving a request from one of the ONUs for the advertised free channel of one of the ICH groups, the supported capabilities of the one of the ICH groups matching capabilities and service requirements of the requesting ONU; authenticating the requesting ONU via the advertised free channel; allocating the advertised free channel to the requesting ONU upon successful authentication of the requesting ONU; and transmitting an updated advertisement from the OLT to the ONUs, the updated advertisement to indicate that a different one of the free channels is now available for allocation for the ICH group.