Edinburgh Napier University

  Optical and wireless technology integration schemes merge the high-speed and high-capacity of the optical networks with the low-cost, wide-coverage and mobility features of wireless counterparts for Subscriber Stations (SSs). It is also financially viable for the telecommunication service providers, particularly in rural areas. In order to successfully integrate the two technologies, there are some technical concerns in terms of Architectural aspects, Physical Layer features and Media Access Control (MAC) related issues. This paper is mainly focused on the analysis of the key topics in architectural design of the converged scenario such as ETE module specifications as well as the MAC-related issues such as ETE resource allocations between the hybrid Passive Optical Networks (hybrid PONs) and wireless technology. A semi-independent structure for the architectural design of the converged protocol is proposed in this paper along with the ETE functional modules from the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) at the far-end Central Office (CO) all the way to the SSs at the front-end customer premises. The ETE key functional modules, which provide the MAC-related issues for the converged protocol such as ETE resource requests and allocations, are also highlighted.