Patent ID: 7437076

Claim:
A method of transmitting data from a plurality of optical network units to an optical line termination in a gigabit Ethernet—passive optical network system including the optical line termination and a plurality of optical network units connected to the optical line termination, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, by the optical line termination, one or more bandwidth allocation request signals from the plurality of optical network units at a start of a first cycle; allocating bandwidths according to time slots and slot sizes of the plurality of optical network units in response to the bandwidth allocation request signals, wherein bandwidth is allocated first to the optical network unit associated with a maximum round trip time (RTT); transmitting a result of the bandwidth allocation to the plurality of optical network units before a beginning of a second cycle that follows the first cycle, wherein a time difference between an end of the first cycle and the beginning of the second cycle is associated with the maximum round trip time; and transmitting the data, by the plurality of the optical network units, in the second cycle, in an order of the allocated bandwidth.