Simulation and Performance Evaluation of Bandwidth Allocation Algorithms for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPONs)

Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) has been considered for access networks for quite some time to provide high-speed and high-capacity services. As a novel type of network, EPON presents many challenges so one main aim of this paper is to provide a test-bed based on IEEE 802.3ah standards using OPNET Modeler to enable smooth implementation of the wide range of bandwidth allocation algorithms. This paper includes a full implementation of a sample EPON environment considering the standard messages, protocols and structures as well as the modeling, simulation and performance analysis of the selected bandwidth allocation algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, this work presents a detailed network architecture for the EPON environment and its most challenging issues for the first time. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed test-bed provides smooth insertion of the different bandwidth allocation algorithms for EPON and can be considered as the standard model for further research and investigations.