Patent ID: 7639694

Claim:
A method for enhancing traffic management for an optical line termination (OLT) in an optical communication system, the method comprising: identifying, by the OLT, associations of a plurality of queues of data packets in an optical network unit (ONU) with a plurality of queue containers in the ONU, wherein each queue container hosts two or more of the plurality of queues of data packets and each of the plurality of queues is hosted by one and only one such queue container, each of the plurality of queues being associated with a different traffic priority; receiving, by the OLT, a first message from the ONU in the optical communication system through a network, the first message specifying transmission demands for transmitting the data packets in the plurality of queues through the network; determining, by the OLT, an allocation of transmission windows among the plurality of queue containers based at least in part on the transmission demands specified in the first message; generating, by the OLT, a second message containing the allocation of transmission windows; and communicating, by the OLT, the second message to the ONU through the network.