A Cooperative ONU Sleep Method for Reducing Latency and Energy Consumption of STA in Smart-FiWi Networks

Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) network is a classification of network that combines the massive bandwidth of the optical network and the reach of the wireless network. FiWi networks are usually composed of an optical and a wireless component. Since both components are designed to work independently, some mechanisms, such as the different power saving methods in both components, may not cooperate with each other and this may result in an undesirable performance. In this paper, we identify that the conflicting power saving mechanisms cause unnecessary energy consumption and introduce additional delay to the overall FiWi network. To cope with this problem, we propose a novel ONU sleep method, which dynamically control the ONU sleep period based on the STAs energy control mechanism. Finally, we demonstrate that our proposed method has shorter latency and is more efficient in term of energy consumption than the existing method.