Abstract
Dynamic bandwidth allocation in passive optical networks presents a key issue for providing efficient and fair utilization of the PON upstream bandwidth while supporting the QoS requirements of different traffic classes. In this paper we compare the typical characteristics of DBA, such as bandwidth utilization, delay, and jitter at different traffic loads, within the two major standards for PONs, Ethernet PON and gigabit PON. We illustrate these differences between EPON and GPON. Industry standards for Passive Optical Network (PON) technology have enabled the initial deployment of Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) services. The ITU-T BPON standard has been embraced in North America while the IEEE 802.3ah based EPON has been chosen as the next step in Japan after close to 2 million BPON, subscribers have been deployed. Regardless of any technology merits, the lowest cost solution will be preferred. With this in mind, this paper also makes a simple costs comparison between EPON and the emerging ITU-T GPON for a given FTTP network