Patent ID: 11902720

Abstract:
An optical line terminal (OLT) operating within a multi-rate PON is configured to perform downstream timeslot scheduling among an associated number of ONUs so as to minimize the change in information rate from one scheduled ONU timeslot to the next. In this manner, the clock recovery component at each ONU is best able to follow the change in information rates, remaining locked on the system clock regardless of the specific implementation of the clock and data recovery (CDR) functionality at a given ONU. The OLT may schedule timeslot assignments that span a pair of adjacent parts (referred to as a two-part cycle), with the first part having timeslots assigned from the lowest information rate (e.g., NRZ) to the highest (e.g., PAM4) and the second part's timeslots assigned in the reverse order; that is, from the highest to the lowest information rate.