Patent ID: 7539211

Claim:
A method for use by a GE-PON (Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network) system which includes one OLT (Optical Line Terminal) and a plurality of ONUs (Optical Network Units) connected to the OLT via an ODN (Optical Distribution Network), said method for controlling the OLT to allocate bandwidth to each of the ONUs according to a bandwidth request signal for transferring data of the ONUs comprising the steps of: a) selecting a minimum bandwidth guaranteed for individual services requested by the ONUs from among an overall available bandwidth, and allocating the minimum bandwidth to the ONUs; b) if a current available bandwidth is found in the overall available bandwidth after allocating the minimum bandwidth to the ONUs sending the bandwidth request signal, allocating bandwidths requested by the ONUs when the sum of the bandwidths requested by the ONUs is lower than the current available bandwidth, determining new request bandwidths associated with the ONUs upon receiving magnitude and weight information of individual queues from the ONUs when the sum of the bandwidths requested by the ONUs is higher than the current available bandwidth, and performing bandwidth allocation in proportion to the determined request bandwidths, said weight information being representative of a priority associated with a service class specified by said ONU, wherein said bandwidth proportionally allocated to an ONU is limited to the bandwidth requested by said ONU.