Improving Energy Efficiency in Upstream EPON Channels by Packet Coalescing

TL;DR

This paper explores adapting packet coalescing, an energy-saving technique from Ethernet, to upstream EPON channels, demonstrating significant power savings without infrastructure changes.

Contribution

It introduces the application of Ethernet packet coalescing to EPON channels, showing potential for energy efficiency improvements in existing networks.

Findings

Significant power savings achieved in simulations

No changes needed in existing infrastructure or protocols

Feasibility of adapting Ethernet algorithms to EPON channels

Abstract

In this paper, we research the feasibility of adapting the packet coalescing algorithm, used successfully in IEEE 802.3az Ethernet cards, to upstream EPON channels. Our simulation experiments show that, using this algorithm, great power savings are feasible without requiring any changes to the deployed access network infrastructure nor to protocols.