TDMA MULTIPLEXING OF ATM CELLS IN A RESIDENTIAL ACCESS SUPERPON

Time division multiple access (TDMA) multiplexing of ATM cells from th ousands of residential customers toward the common feeder of a Passive Optical Network (SuperPON) tree obviates the need for an equal number of optical line terminations (OLT's). All upstream transmissions conv erge by means of the passive splitters/combiners to just one OLT unit which serves all by time sharing. The ability to reach such a high spl itting ratio became possible by the development of bursty mode optical amplifiers (OA's). In addition, OA's make possible a 100-km-long feed er which can bypass the local exchange into the first core switch, bri nging further savings to both initial and running costs. These techniq ues allow SuperPON's to lower the access cost per customer, holding fo r the promise of ushering into domestic local loops the photonics revo lution which has already transformed the transmission plant. These sav ings, however, can only be realized under the assumption that the syst em can accept high loading before exceeding the limits of quality of s ervice (QoS) requirements and without distorting the egress traffic in a way that jeopardizes the statistical estimates on which ATM connect ion acceptance was based. Solutions to the problem of traffic arbitrat ion, respecting the idiosyncrasies of each traffic class and suitable for fast implementation, are offered in this work.