HK1187171A - System and method for applying an extended multipoint protocol to wireless access systems - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for applying an extended multipoint control protocols to wireless access systems. A medium-to-medium adaptor can be provided in an adaptor node that can interface with an upstream optical line terminal in a PON domain and a downstream device in a non-PON wireless domain. The medium-to-medium adaptor enables an implementation of end-to-end services across multiple quality of service (QoS) domains by passing all traffic with controlled delay and without contention.

Description

System and method for applying extended multipoint protocol to wireless access system

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to multipoint control protocols and, more particularly, to a system and method for applying an extended multipoint control protocol to a wireless access system.

Background

In a point-to-multipoint system such as an Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON), a single Optical Line Terminal (OLT) at the head end may be designed to communicate with multiple Optical Network Units (ONUs) at each terminal node. The scheme balances shared fiber optic equipment across multiple network nodes. Typically, the OLT broadcasts its transmissions to all ONUs in the downstream direction. On the other hand, each of the ONUs transmits to the OLT in a pre-allocated time slot in the upstream direction.

Disclosure of Invention

(1) A method, comprising: communicating between a first inter-media adapter and an end station via a first wireless link between the end station and an optical line terminal, the first inter-media adapter coupled to the optical line terminal via a first wired link, wherein the communicating is facilitated with a resource allocation identifier allocated to the end station by the optical line terminal, the resource allocation identifier enabling the end station to report status to the optical line terminal and grant bandwidth to the end station through the optical line terminal; and, once the end station is associated with a second inter-media adapter, communicating between the end station and the optical line terminal via a second wireless link between the second inter-media adapter and the end station, the second inter-media adapter coupled to the optical line terminal via a second wired link.

(2) The method of (1), wherein the resource allocation identifier is a Logical Link Identifier (LLID).

(3) The method of (1), wherein the resource allocation identifier is an allocation identifier (AllocID).

(4) The method of (1), wherein the wireless communication of the terminal stations is according to a point-to-multipoint wireless protocol.

(5) The method of (1), further comprising: inserting, by the optical line terminal, the resource allocation identifier into a preamble of an Ethernet frame communicated by the optical line terminal to the first inter-media adapter.

(6) The method of (5), further comprising: extracting, by the end station, the resource allocation identifier from an Ethernet frame received by the end station from the first inter-media adapter.

(7) A method, comprising: registering an end station with an optical line terminal, the registering being facilitated by a registration message communicated between the end station and the optical line terminal via a first inter-media adapter, the first inter-media adapter including a first physical layer device supporting wired communication with the optical line terminal and a second physical layer device supporting wireless communication with the end station; communicating between the end station and the optical line terminal via the first inter-media adapter using a resource allocation identifier allocated to the end station by the optical line terminal during the registration, the resource allocation identifier enabling the end station to report status to the optical line terminal and grant bandwidth to the end station through the optical line terminal; associating the end station with a second inter-media adapter comprising a third physical layer device supporting wired communication with the optical line terminal and a fourth physical layer device supporting wireless communication with the end station; and communicating between the end station and the optical line terminal using the resource allocation identifier via the second inter-media adapter.

(8) The method of (7), wherein the resource allocation identifier is a Logical Link Identifier (LLID).

(9) The method of (7), wherein the resource allocation identifier is an allocation identifier (AllocID).

(10) The method of (7), wherein the wireless communication of the terminal stations is according to a point-to-multipoint wireless protocol.

(11) The method of (7), further comprising: extracting, by the end station, the resource allocation identifier from an Ethernet frame received by the end station from the first inter-media adapter.

(12) A mobile device, comprising: a physical layer device configured to receive network communication traffic from the inter-media adapter via a wireless link; and a medium access control module configured to extract a resource allocation identifier included in an ethernet frame in the first network communication traffic, wherein the resource allocation identifier is allocated to the network device by an optical line terminal coupled to the inter-media adapter, the resource allocation identifier enabling the network device to report a status to the optical line terminal and grant bandwidth to the network device through the optical line terminal.

(13) The network device of (12), wherein the physical layer device is a point-to-multipoint radio protocol physical layer device.

(14) The network device of (13), further comprising a point-to-multipoint wireless protocol medium access control module.

(15) The network device of (14), further comprising an IEEE802.3ah medium access control module interfacing with the point-to-multipoint wireless protocol medium access control module.

(16) The network device of (15), wherein the resource allocation identifier is extracted by the ieee802.3ah media access control module from a VLAN tag field in the ethernet frame.

(17) The network device of (12), wherein the resource allocation identifier is a Logical Link Identifier (LLID).

(18) The network apparatus of (12), wherein the resource allocation identifier is an allocation identifier (AllocID).

Drawings

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 shows an example of a point-to-multipoint communication network.

Fig. 2 shows an example of extending a multipoint control protocol to a hybrid media access system.

Fig. 3 illustrates another example of extending a multipoint control protocol to a hybrid media access system.

Fig. 4 shows an example of an implementation of an adapter node in a hybrid media access system.

Fig. 5 shows an example of processing by the inter-media adapter.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example of communication of resource allocation identifiers on a hybrid media access system.

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of mapping resource allocation identifiers at an intermediate adapter node.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the process of the present invention.

Fig. 9 shows an example of extending the multipoint control protocol to a WiFi network.

Fig. 10 shows an example of the second process of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Various embodiments of the invention are described in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is for example purposes only. Those skilled in the art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Hybrid media access systems may be employed in a variety of situations where the high cost of fiber installation impedes the expansion of fiber to terminating network elements. For example, a hybrid media access system such as a PON-based DSL and a PON-based ethernet in a communication network, a coaxial-cable-based ethernet PON (epoc) in a cable multi-system operator (MSO) network, a PON-based WiFi, WiMAX, 3G, LTE, etc. in a wireless network, and a PON-based wire network may be used. In these hybrid media access systems, there will be a variety of administrative and quality of service (QoS) domains.

To cope with mismatches at the domain boundary, an inter-media-adapter (media-to-media adapter) is provided so as to be able to interact with the upstream OLT in the PON domain and downstream devices in the non-PON domain. An inter-media adapter enables the implementation of end-to-end services between multiple QoS domains by delivering all traffic (traffic) without contention with controlled delay. In one embodiment, the inter-media adapter may be configured to map a resource allocation identifier in a header portion of a frame structure (e.g., a preamble of an ethernet frame or a header of a GPON Encapsulation (GEM) or an xGPON encapsulation (xGEM) frame) included in network communication traffic communicating with an upstream OLT in the PON domain and a resource allocation identifier in an ethernet frame included in network communication traffic communicating with a downstream device in the non-PON domain. The resource allocation identifier is assigned by the OLT to the terminating network element so that the terminating network element can report status to the OLT and grant bandwidth to the terminating network element by the OLT. The communication of the end-to-end resource allocation identifiers of the PON domain and the non-PON domain enables end-to-end QoS control in a hybrid media access system. For example, in a hybrid media access system including a plurality of inter-media adapters each interacting with an OLT in a PON domain and supporting a non-PON wireless network domain (e.g., WiFi), control of an end-to-end QoS of a mobile station can be maintained even if the mobile station roams between coverage areas of the plurality of inter-media adapters.

Fig. 1 shows an example of a point-to-multipoint communication network interfacing PON domains with non-PON domains. As shown, the point-to-multipoint network comprises a single OLT 110 communicating with a plurality of adapter nodes 130-n via a PON. The illustrated PON includes a splitter 120 that enables a single feeder cable to be split into multiple cables for individual adapter nodes 130-n. Each adapter node 130-n may interface with non-PON domains, such as supported by other coaxial cables, twisted copper pairs, fiber optic media, wireless, etc., network links.

Here, it should be noted that the PON domain may represent an EPON such as specified by IEEE802.3, GPON, BPON, xGPON, or the like specified by ITU-T. In general, a PON is advantageous in that it allows multiple network nodes to share fiber equipment. In the downstream direction, the OLT 110 is configured to broadcast frames containing packets to the terminating network elements responsible for extracting the specific packets directed to that location, while in the upstream direction, the terminating network elements are designed to transmit using, for example, a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) communication protocol in a manner that avoids collisions between packets.

In a hybrid media access system, an adapter node 130-n is configured to interface with a PON domain and a non-PON domain. Fig. 2 illustrates an example of use of an adapter node that may be configured to extend a multipoint control protocol to a hybrid media access system. As shown, the OLT210 communicates with the terminating network element 230 via the adapter node 220. The communication between the OLT210 and the adapter node 220 is facilitated by the PON medium 240. Communication between adapter 220 and terminating network element 230 is facilitated by non-PON medium 250, where non-PON medium 250 may include network links such as coaxial cable, twisted copper pair, fiber optic medium, wireless, etc.

In providing an interface between a PON domain and a non-PON domain, the adapter node 220 may be configured to include an inter-media adapter 221. As shown, the adapter node 220 includes a PON physical layer device (PHY) 222 and a PON MAC 226 configured to cooperate with the PON PHY device (PHY) 212 and the PON Media Access Control (MAC) 214, respectively, in the OLT 210. The adapter node 220 further comprises a non-PON PHY 224 and a non-PON MAC 228 configured to cooperate with a non-PON PHY 232 and a non-PON MAC234, respectively, in the terminating network element 230. Here, it should be noted that non-PONMAC 228 is optionally included in inter-media adapter 221 to facilitate control such as addressing and non-PON channel access, depending on whether non-PON MAC is used for communication for the non-PON domain. For example, if the non-PON domain includes a WiFi link, inter-media adapter 221 may be configured to include a supplemental 802.11MAC to cooperate with the 802.11MAC in end network element 230. It should be understood that the need and/or specific type of non-PON MAC used in the non-PON domain will depend on the implementation.

As further shown in fig. 2, terminating network element 230 also includes a PON MAC 236 atop an optional non-PON MAC 234. Located on top of the PON MAC 236 in the terminating network element 230 is an extended PON protocol 238. In one example applied to IEEE802.3 EPON, the extended PON protocol includes a multipoint control protocol (MPCP) of a lower layer and an operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) of an upper layer. In another example applied to ITU-T GPON, the extended PON protocol includes a lower physical layer operation and maintenance (PLOAM) and an upper layer Operation Management Control Interface (OMCI).

The extended PON protocol 238 in the terminating network element 230 is designed to provide a number of end-to-end services between management and QoS domains in cooperation with the extended PON protocol 216 in the OLT 210. As shown in fig. 2, the inter-media adapter 221 is also designed to cooperate with the extended PON protocol 216 in the OLT 210. In general, the extended PON protocol 216 may be designed to control the operation of the terminating network element 230 and configure the intermediate adapter node 220 to deliver arbitrary and all communication traffic without contention with a controlled delay. More specifically, the extended PON protocol 210 may be designed to control the operation of the terminating network element 230 and configure the intermediate adapter node 220 to schedule transmission windows to avoid collisions or contention.

The operation of the adaptor node 220 to facilitate the provision of the end-to-end service will be described in more detail below. Here, it should be noted that the PON MAC 236 and the extended PON protocol 238 in the terminating network element 230 will not know the specific non-PON medium in which it operates.

Before describing the operation of adapter node 220 in more detail, it should be noted that the principles of the present invention are not limited to a peer-to-peer link with a single intermediate adapter node. As shown in fig. 3, the multipoint control protocol is extendable to a hybrid media access system comprising a plurality of intermediate adapter nodes. As shown, OLT 310 is coupled to terminating network elements 330 via multiple intermediate adapter nodes 320A, 320B, etc. In various implementations, in addition to the PON domain between OLT 310 and adapter node 320A, intermediate adapter nodes 320A, 320B, etc. may be used to facilitate end-to-end services among multiple non-PON domains. As will be appreciated, each non-PON domain may represent an independently operated domain that uses a different non-PON domain medium. As shown, the extended PON protocol 312 in OLT 310 may be designed to control the operation of the terminating network element 330 and configure the intermediate adapter nodes 320A, 320B, etc. to pass any and all communication traffic without contention with a controlled delay.

Fig. 4 illustrates an embodiment of an intermediate adapter node that may facilitate multiple management and end-to-end services between QoS domains. In the illustrated example, the adapter node 400 includes a PON PHY 402 that interfaces with an upstream OLT and a non-PON PHY 404 that interfaces with downstream devices (e.g., terminating network elements or other intermediate adapter nodes). The adapter node may comprise a non-PON PHY if the adapter node interfaces with an upstream adapter node.

The adapter node 400 further comprises an inter-media adapter 410. In general, the inter-media adapter 410 is designed to extend the multipoint control protocol over non-PON domains and provide data bridging between upstream and downstream domains. In the example embodiment shown in fig. 4, the inter-media adapter 410 includes a PON MAC 412 and a MAC control 413 located on the PON PHY 402. The inter-media adapter 410 also includes a non-PON MAC 414 and MAC control 415 located on the non-PON PHY 404. The example embodiments may be used to facilitate communications with upstream PON domains and downstream non-PON domains. The inter-media adapter may also include a non-PON MAC located below the PON MAC if the intermediate adapter node facilitates communication with an upstream non-PON domain.

As further shown in FIG. 4, the inter-media adapter 410 may also include a Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) agent 416. In general, the DBA agent 416 facilitates implementing a bandwidth allocation mechanism that handles downstream bandwidth allocation messages and upstream status report messages according to bandwidth allocation and reporting processes in the MAC control 413. In general, the bandwidth allocation message may be used to allocate transmission slots to the network elements, while the status report message may be used to report back to the OLT. These reports may help the OLT make intelligent allocation decisions. In one embodiment, the adapter node 400 may be designed to include per-service statistical counts, alarm triggers, and threshold crossing alarms to achieve unified alarm monitoring and performance monitoring.

In one example, as applied to IEEE802.3 EPON, the bandwidth allocation message is represented by an EPON GATE message that identifies a time slot based on a start time and length, and the status REPORT message is represented by an EPON REPORT message. In another example applied to an ITU-T GPON, the bandwidth allocation message is implemented by using the US BW map in the header of a GEM/XGEM frame, the bandwidth allocation message identifies the slots based on the start time and end time, and the status report message is implemented by requesting upstream transmission slots using the upstream Ind field or the DBRu field in the PLOu block.

To ensure that intermediate adapter node 400 passes communication traffic in the scheduled transmission window to avoid collisions or contention within the network, the bandwidth allocation process within MAC control 413 may control the transmission of upstream data located in transmission queues that hold communication traffic received from downstream devices in the non-PON domain. It should be understood that the transmission queue may also comprise message communication traffic (e.g., REPORT messages) generated by the intermediate adapter node 400 and to be transmitted upstream to the OLT.

To assist in enabling the transmission of data in the scheduled transmission window, the intermediate adapter node is designed to pass communication traffic with a controlled delay. For example, during an auto-discovery phase in which the OLT detects newly connected terminating network elements and learns the round trip delays of these terminating network elements, the intermediate adapter node may be configured to pass messages after a delay of a consistent time period. The consistent time period may be defined as a delay period sufficient to accommodate processing by the adapter node.

By introducing a controlled delay period by the intermediate adapter node, the OLT can accurately determine the round trip delay between the OLT and the terminating network element. This accuracy is an important factor in achieving that the OLT schedules bandwidth allocations to multiple terminating network elements. For example, if the DBA agent in the OLT expects to receive data from the terminating network element at time t, then in fact a bandwidth allocation message will be sent to the terminating network element at time t-RTT, where RTT is the round trip time to the terminating network element (including any controlled delay introduced by the intermediate adapter node).

FIG. 5 shows other examples of inter-media adapter processing. As shown, the inter-media adapter 500 may include a synchronization mapping module. The synchronization mapping module may be configured to address synchronization differences in the PON domain compared to synchronization in a non-PON domain. In various examples, the synchronization mapping module may be configured to address differential issues in transmission rates, clocks, medium access, etc. for the PON domain and the non-PON domain.

In one application, the synchronization mapping module may be used to facilitate full-duplex/half-duplex provisioning, where full-duplex mode is employed in PON domains and half-duplex mode is employed in non-PON domains. Here, the OLT, adapter nodes and terminating network elements may provide unified management of upstream and downstream communication traffic. More specifically, the extended PON protocol may be used to schedule upstream transmissions of terminating network elements and downstream transmissions of inter-media adapters to coincide with time slots in a non-PON domain.

Another example of an inter-media adapter 500 process is encoding adaptation, where a first form of encoding is used for PON domains and a second form of encoding is used for non-PON domains. To provide an interface between a PON domain and a non-PON domain, the inter-media adapter 500 may decode PON communication traffic to produce unencoded communication traffic that is processed by the inter-media adapter prior to encoding the communication traffic to be sent over the non-PON domain. In one embodiment, communication traffic encoding for non-PON domains is previously encoded using PON encoding. It should be understood that the inter-media adapter may be configured to address mismatch issues between capacity, latency, Bit Error Rate (BER), Forward Error Correction (FEC), security, etc., between PON domain and non-PON domain boundaries.

As mentioned above, the intermediate adapter node may comprise an inter-medium adapter configured to perform a variety of adaptations to provide an interface between the PON domain and the non-PON domain. It should be understood that the specific type of adaptation will depend on the specific implementation of the non-PON domain. Regardless of these different potential adaptations, the inter-media adapter is designed to implement multiple end-to-end services between management and QoS domains. To facilitate implementation of such multiple management and end-to-end services between QoS domains, resource allocation identifiers (e.g., LLIDs or allocids) assigned by the OLT to the terminating network elements are communicated end-to-end between the PON domain and the non-PON domains.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example of communication of resource allocation identifiers on a hybrid media access system. As shown, the hybrid media access system includes a PON domain that facilitates communication between OLT610 and intermediate adapter 620 over PON media 640, and a non-PON domain that facilitates communication between intermediate adapter node 620 and terminating network element 630 over non-PON media 650. As mentioned above, the resource allocation identifier is allocated by the OLT610 to the terminating network element 630 and allows the terminating network element 630 to report status to the OLT610, which the OLT610 grants bandwidth to the terminating network element 630. As shown, the allocated resource allocation identifier is communicated end-to-end over the PON domain and the non-PON domain.

In one embodiment, the inter-media adapter may be configured to map a resource allocation identifier in a header portion of a frame structure contained in network communication traffic communicating with the OLT610 in the PON domain to a resource allocation identifier in an ethernet frame contained in network communication traffic communicating with the terminating network element 630 in the non-PON domain. This mapping process of the resource allocation identifier mapping is designed to enable end-to-end communication of the resource allocation identifier between the OLT and the terminating network element, thereby enabling end-to-end service implementation.

Fig. 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of mapping resource allocation identifiers at an intermediate adapter node to facilitate communications over a hybrid media access system. As shown, the frame structure in the PON domain includes a header portion and a frame portion. In one example, the frame portion includes a destination MAC address (DA) field, a source MAC address (SA) field, a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) field, a data field, and a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) field. For communication traffic of the PON domain, the resource allocation identifier is included in a header portion of the frame structure.

To map communication traffic between the PON domain and the non-PON domain, a header portion of the PON domain communication traffic is removed. As shown, the resource allocation identifier required for implementation of the end-to-end service is extracted from a header portion of the PON domain communication traffic and inserted into a frame portion of the non-PON domain communication traffic. In the illustrated example, the resource allocation identifier may be inserted into the 16-bit portion of the VLAN field of the ethernet frame. It should be understood that the principles of the present invention are not limited to inserting a resource allocation identifier into the VLAN field of an ethernet frame. In one embodiment, the resource allocation identifier may be inserted into other defined fields of the ethernet frame or into a defined offset portion located within the data portion of the ethernet frame.

Regardless of where within the ethernet frame the resource allocation identifier is inserted, inclusion of the resource allocation identifier within the ethernet frame enables the resource allocation identifier to be communicated over the non-PON domain for receipt by the terminating network element. At the receiving end network element, the ethernet frame may be parsed and the resource allocation identifier extracted for use by the PON MAC and the extended PON protocol at the end network element.

To further illustrate the mapping process of the resource allocation identifiers of the intermediate adapter nodes, reference will now be made to the flow chart of FIG. 8, FIG. 8 illustrating an example process of the present invention. As shown, the process begins at step 802, where the intermediate adapter node receives network communication traffic from the OLT via the PON PHY. In step 804 the inter-media adapter of the intermediate adapter node will extract the resource allocation identifier from the header portion of the frame structure contained in the received network traffic. As described above, the resource allocation identifier is allocated by the OLT to the terminating network station and is used to grant bandwidth to the terminating network station and to allow the terminating network station to report back status to the OLT.

Next, at step 806, the extracted resource allocation identifier is inserted into a field defined by the ethernet frame or located at a defined offset location of the ethernet frame. The specific field or location where the resource allocation identifier is inserted will depend on the implementation. Finally, at step 808, the ethernet frame including the resource allocation identifier is transmitted to the downstream non-PON domain via the non-PON PHY of the intermediate adapter node.

A feature of the invention is that this mapping of the resource allocation identifier from the header part to the frame part itself makes it possible for the resource allocation identifier to be transmitted over the non-PON domain for use by the terminating network element. This enables the establishment of end-to-end emulation of point-to-point services across multiple domains. In one embodiment, a non-PON PHY in a non-PON domain may be enhanced to identify an ethernet frame with other tags or fields for resource allocation identifier communication.

Communication of resource allocation identifiers over non-PON domains enables the point-to-point multipoint protocol of the PON to be extended to provide management and control of a hybrid network having the PON domains and the non-PON domains. To illustrate the application of such management and control over a hybrid network, an example application to a hybrid network having an IEEE 802.11 non-PON domain is now discussed.

Fig. 9 shows an example of such a hybrid network. As shown, hybrid network 900 includes a single OLT910 in communication with multiple adapter nodes 930-n via a PON. In this example, each intermediate adapter node 930-n interfaces with an 802.11 non-PON domain supported by the wireless network link. Each intermediate adapter node 930-n will include an 802.11 non-PON PHY and an inter-media adapter that includes an 802.11 non-PON MAC that will enable communication with the wireless terminal network element 940. The operation of such a hybrid network will now be described with reference to fig. 10, which shows a flow chart of the process of the present invention. In this example illustration, reference is made to EPON messaging. It should be understood that equivalent messaging may be used in the context of the ITU-T GPON framework.

When the terminating network element 940 comes into range of the adapter node 930-1 in the hybrid network, the terminating network element 940 will first establish a WiFi connection with the adapter node 930-1 by communicating with the 802.11 non-PON PHY and the 802.11 non-PON MAC in the adapter node 930-1. Once the WiFi connection is established between the adapter node 930-1 and the terminating network element 940, the terminating network element 940 may then register the OLT910 via the adapter node 930-1 in step 1002. In this process, the terminating network element will respond to an auto-discovery process initiated by OLT910 using a discovery GATE message. After terminal network element 940 sets its local clock to the timestamp received in the discovery GATE message, terminal network element 940 will transmit a REGISTER _ REQ message after waiting a random delay period after the start time of the initialization slot indicated by the discovery GATE message. The transmitted message will include the MAC address of the terminating network element 940 and a timestamp representing the time the REGISTER _ REQ message was sent by the terminating network element 940. The timestamp allows OLT910 to determine the round trip time from OLT910 to terminating network element 940. Once the REGISTER _ REQ message is parsed and verified, OLT910 may issue a REGISTER message containing a resource allocation identifier assigned to terminal unit 940.

After terminal network unit 940 registers with OLT910, terminal unit 940 may communicate with OLT910 using the allocated resource allocation identifier at step 1004. In this process, conventional GATE and REPORT messages may be communicated with the resource allocation identifier between OLT910 and terminal network element 940 via adapter node 930-1. Such communication over a hybrid network comprising a PON domain and a non-PON domain is achieved by an adapter node 930-1, which adapter node 930 facilitates implementing an interface between the PON domain and the non-PON domain to pass communication traffic between OLT910 and a terminating network element 940. In one embodiment, OLT910 will continue to monitor and adjust the round trip time value for the connection to terminating network 940 via adapter node 930-1 to ensure that synchronization through the PON domain can be maintained as terminating network element 940 moves within range of adapter node 930-1.

As the terminal network element 940 moves within the coverage area of the hybrid network 900, the terminal network element may associate itself with a new wireless access point at step 1004. This process is shown in fig. 9 as changing the communication of the terminating network element 940 using the adapter 930-1 to the communication of the terminating network element 940 using the adapter 930-2. As described above, adapter node 930-2 interfaces with the PON domain via communication with OLT 910. Thus, the adapter node 930-2 will also include an 802.11 non-PON PHY and an inter-media adapter including an 802.11 non-PON MAC that will enable communication with the wireless terminal network element 940.

The change with respect to terminating network element 940 from adapter node 930-1 to adapter node 930-2 may be facilitated by the 802.11 non-PONPHY and 802.11 non-PON MAC contained in adapter node 930-2 and terminating network element 940. In particular, a change from adapter node 930-1 to adapter node 930-2 with respect to terminating network element 940 will not require re-registration of OLT 910. Here, it is a feature of the present invention that the communication between the terminating network unit 940 and the OLT910 in step 1006 will be facilitated by the same resource allocation identifier obtained by the registration of the terminating network unit 940 with the OLT910 via the adapter node 930-1. To assist in enabling communication of terminating network element 940 with OLT910 via adapter node 930-2, OLT910 will again continue to monitor and adjust the round trip time value for the connection to terminating network element 940 via adapter node 930-2 to ensure that synchronization through the PON domain can be maintained as terminating network element 940 moves within range of adapter node 930-2. Here, it should be noted that the use of the same resource allocation identifier in communicating with the OLT via the adapter node 930-1 and the adapter node 930-2 allows the end-to-end QoS to be controlled when the terminating network element 940 roams in different coverage areas of the hybrid network.

It will be appreciated that the specific form of control over the end-to-end service will depend on the implementation. Importantly, such control of end-to-end services can be extended across different forms of hybrid networks.

In one embodiment, extensions to the multipoint control protocol may enable power management to improve energy efficiency. For example, if the non-PON domain network device supports low power mode operation, management of the low power mode operation may be managed by the OLT using the resource allocation identifier.

Another embodiment of the invention may provide a machine and/or computer readable storage and/or medium having stored thereon a machine code and/or a computer program having at least one code section executable by a machine and/or computer to cause the machine and/or computer to perform the steps described herein.

These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the foregoing detailed description. While a number of the salient features of the invention have been described above, the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways that will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the disclosure, and thus, the foregoing description should not be construed as excluding such other embodiments. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

Claims (10)

1. A method, comprising:

communicating between a first inter-media adapter and an end station via a first wireless link between the end station and an optical line terminal, the first inter-media adapter coupled to the optical line terminal via a first wired link, wherein the communicating is facilitated with a resource allocation identifier allocated to the end station by the optical line terminal, the resource allocation identifier enabling the end station to report status to the optical line terminal and grant bandwidth to the end station through the optical line terminal; and

once the end station is associated with a second inter-media adapter, communications between the end station and the optical line terminal are communicated via a second wireless link between the second inter-media adapter and the end station, the second inter-media adapter being coupled to the optical line terminal via a second wired link.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource allocation identifier is a Logical Link Identifier (LLID) or an allocation identifier (AllocID).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein wireless communication of the terminal stations is according to a point-to-multipoint wireless protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: inserting, by the optical line terminal, the resource allocation identifier into a preamble of an Ethernet frame communicated by the optical line terminal to the first inter-media adapter.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: extracting, by the end station, the resource allocation identifier from an Ethernet frame received by the end station from the first inter-media adapter.

6. A method, comprising:

registering an end station with an optical line terminal, the registering being facilitated by a registration message communicated between the end station and the optical line terminal via a first inter-media adapter, the first inter-media adapter including a first physical layer device supporting wired communication with the optical line terminal and a second physical layer device supporting wireless communication with the end station;

communicating between the end station and the optical line terminal via the first inter-media adapter using a resource allocation identifier allocated to the end station by the optical line terminal during the registration, the resource allocation identifier enabling the end station to report status to the optical line terminal and grant bandwidth to the end station through the optical line terminal;

associating the end station with a second inter-media adapter comprising a third physical layer device supporting wired communication with the optical line terminal and a fourth physical layer device supporting wireless communication with the end station; and

communicating between the end station and the optical line terminal using the resource allocation identifier via the second inter-media adapter.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: extracting, by the end station, the resource allocation identifier from an Ethernet frame received by the end station from the first inter-media adapter.

8. A network apparatus, comprising:

a physical layer device configured to receive network communication traffic from the inter-media adapter via a wireless link; and

a media access control module configured to extract a resource allocation identifier contained within an Ethernet frame in the first network communication traffic, wherein the resource allocation identifier is allocated to the network device by an optical line terminal coupled to the inter-media adapter, the resource allocation identifier enabling the network device to report status to the optical line terminal and grant bandwidth to the network device through the optical line terminal.

9. The network device of claim 8, wherein the physical layer device is a point-to-multipoint radio protocol physical layer device.

10. The network device of claim 9, further comprising a point-to-multipoint wireless protocol medium access control module.