Patent ID: 8180217

Claim:
A method for coordinating measurements and calibrations in a gigabit passive optical network (GPON), the method comprising: generating, in an optical line termination (OLT), a downstream frame, the downstream frame including at least one allocation structure, the at least one allocation structure configured to allocate to at least one targeted optical network termination (ONT) a time slot for transmitting upstream data, the allocation structure including a flags field, the flags field indicating that the type of data to be transmitted during the allocated time slot is user data and the flags field includes a first flag bit, the first flag bit indicating that the type of upstream data to be transmitted during the allocated time slot is measurement data and a second flag bit, the second flag bit indicating that the type of upstream data to be transmitted during the allocated time slot is calibration data; transmitting, by the OLT, the downstream frame to a plurality of targeted ONTs; generating, by at least one of the targeted ONTs, user data as the upstream data if the downstream frame indicates that the type of upstream data to be transmitted during the allocated time slot is user data; generating, by at least one of the targeted ONTs, measurement data as the upstream data if the downstream frame indicates that the type of upstream data to be transmitted during the allocated time slot is measurement data; generating, by at least one targeted ONT, calibration data as the upstream data if the downstream frame indicates that the type of upstream data to be transmitted during the allocated time slot is calibration data; and transmitting, by at least one of the targeted ONTs, the upstream data using the allocated timeslot.