Patent Application
20080002718
The foregoing will be apparent from the following more particular description of example embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments of the present invention.
A description of example embodiments of the invention follows.
The PON 100 may be deployed for fiber-to-the-business (FTTB), fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC), or fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) applications. The optical feeds 121a-n in the PON 100 may operate at bandwidths such as 155 Mb/sec, 622 Mb/sec, 1.25 Gb/sec, 2.5 Gb/sec, or any other desired bandwidth implementations. The PON 100 may incorporate Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) communications, broadband services such as Ethernet access and video distribution, Ethernet point-to-multipoint topologies, and native communications of data and Time Division Multiplex (TDM) formats.
Each ONT 110a-n in the example network 100 is a multi-service terminal providing Internet, voice, data, video, or other services to a subscriber's premises. The OLT 130 may have knowledge of each ONT 110a-n based on a serial number or other identifier associated with each respective ONT 110a-n. After the OLT 130 ranges a given ONT (e.g., ONT 110a) to learn and correct for optical signal power, distance, timing delays, and other parameters, the OLT 130 provisions the given ONT 110a with several attributes enabling communications services between the OLT 130 and the given ONT 110a. Many of these attributes or settings are maintained in non-volatile memory so that after an ONT is upgraded and rebooted, the attributes or settings are retained, thereby eliminating relearning the attributes through repeating the ranging.
The ONTs 110a-n store settings or operating parameters in ONT memory (not shown) to enable one or more of the communications services between the OLT 130 and the ONTs 110a-n. The ONT settings include: (i) settings that enable or disable (a) video or data services or (b) certain characteristics of video or data services between the ONTs 110a-n and the OLT 130; (ii) settings that enable or disable Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) services or certain characteristics of the POTS services (e.g., Loop Start versus Ground Start); and (iii) an Emergency-Stop setting (also known as the G.983.1 (or G.984.3) PLOAM command: Disable_SerialNumber=ON/OFF). Some ONT settings (e.g., video service settings) are stored in non-volatile memory for the purpose of retaining these settings, for example, across ONT reboots after software upgrades. In certain scenarios, however, it is useful for the ONT to discard the ONT settings. Several scenarios involve physically removing or disconnecting an ONT from the PON 100. For example, an authorized person, such as a technician, may remove an ONT and place it in inventory. But, when the ONT is redeployed, it may behave unexpectedly because of the previous settings retained by the ONT. In another example, an unauthorized person may remove an ONT from the PON 100, connect it to the same or a different PON, and receive communications services without paying for them because the retained settings enable such communications services.
The default settings, such as manufacturing default settings, may disable one or more communications services between the OLT and the ONT. The ONT settings that are updated may include ONT settings stored in non-volatile memory or all ONT settings. Thus, once the ONT settings are updated with the default settings, an unauthorized person who removes the ONT and connects it elsewhere cannot receive communications services without paying for them (or otherwise adhering to a contractual or other arrangement with a service provider) because the default settings disable the communications services. Moreover, by resetting the ONT with the default settings, the ONT behaves as expected by a technician because the ONT operates based on the default settings and not settings retained by the ONT that are unknown to the technician. This minimizes troubleshooting efforts required by technicians in the field who redeploy ONTs.
The OLT 230a may include an OLT database 235, which stores default settings of the ONTs 210a, 210b, and so forth, that itself is stored in non-volatile memory, such as RAM, ROM, CD-ROM, and so forth. The OLT 230a also includes a notification unit 221 in communication with a management system 205. The notification unit 221 notifies the management system 205 that a given ONT (e.g., ONT 210a) is removed from a network, such as the PON 200b. A default updating unit 223, in communication with and responsive to the notification unit 221, updates settings of the given ONT 210a with default settings, such as the default settings contained in the OLT database 235, via the OLT 230a to disable at least one service between the OLT 230a and the given ONT 210a.
In other example embodiments, the notification unit 201 may notify the management system 205 that the given ONT 210a is removed or deleted from the network. For example, a user, such as a network operator or technician, may notify or send a command to the management system 205, via the notification unit 201, to delete the given ONT 210a. The management system 205, in turn, notifies the OLT 230a that the given ONT 210a is removed or deleted from the PON 200b. The OLT 230a, in turn, may cause the given ONT 210a or an ONT processing unit 219 to update the given ONT 210a with default settings contained in an ONT database 215.
In general, embodiments of the present invention may address at least two example scenarios surrounding the removal of an ONT from a PON. In a first example scenario, a management system, OLT, or PON card residing in the OLT may delete or modify an ONT record at the PON card, OLT, or management system prior to removal of the ONT from the PON. In the second example scenario, the ONT may be removed from the PON without being properly deleted. An ONT may be removed from a PON by physically removing or disconnecting the ONT from the PON. It may further include changing ONT settings or interrupting communications between the OLT and the PON effectively to remove the ONT from the PON. For example, an OLT may change or update ONT settings to disable all communications services, premium communications services, subset(s) of communications services, and so forth, between the OLT and the ONT.
In one embodiment (case 1), the PON card 320 may include a default updating unit 323 that sends information, such as information message(s) or packet(s) 322, to the ONT 310 in response to receipt of the command packet 307. The information cause(s) the ONT 310 or the processing unit 313 of the ONT 310 to access an ONT database 315 containing ONT default settings 317 and to update ONT settings contained in memory or non-volatile memory, such as non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) 314, with the default settings 317. The ONT default settings 317 may disable one or more communications services between the OLT 330 and the ONT 310 being provided to an end user node 340. In this embodiment, an end user does not interact directly with the ONT 310; the end user interacts indirectly with the ONT 310 via the end user node 340. In other embodiments, however, the end user may interact directly with the ONT in the same way that an end user interacts with a cable set top box or a broadband home router. After the ONT settings in the NVRAM 314 are updated with the default settings 317, the ONT 310 may send a message, such as an acknowledge message 312, indicating that the settings of the ONT 310 have been successfully updated with the default settings 317.
Once the PON card 320 accepts the message from the ONT 310 indicating that the ONT settings have been updated with the default settings 317, a PON notification unit 321 may send notification packet(s) 327 to the management system 305 to notify it that the ONT 310 has been properly deleted from the PON 300.
In another embodiment (case 2), the default updating unit 323 of the PON card 320 accesses a database 335 containing default settings 327 for ONT 310 upon receiving the command packet 307 from the management system 305. The OLT 330 or PON card 320 may maintain the database 335 of ONT default settings. The PON card 320 or OLT 330 may alternatively download a configuration file that contains the ONT default settings for the ONT 310 and other ONTs. In other embodiments, the PON card 320 or OLT 330 may hardcode the default settings in software.
The default updating unit 323 then provisions the ONT 310 or the NVRAM 314 with the default settings 327, for example, via the processing unit 313. The PON card 320 may use ONT Management and Control Interface (OMCI) channels, which are standard communication channels between the OLT 330 and the ONT 310, to provision the ONT 310 with the default settings 327. In provisioning the ONT 310 with default settings, the PON card 320 may send one message or multiple messages for each individual ONT default setting or attribute. The default settings 327 may include manufacturing default settings when the ONT 310 first came out of the factory.
As with the case 1 embodiment, the notification unit 321 may send a notification message 329 to the management system indicating that the ONT 310 has been successfully deleted from the PON 300. The notification unit 321 or other element of the PON card 320 may be in operative communication with a ranging unit 325. The ranging unit 325 may discontinue ranging the ONT 310 in response to the notification unit 321 notifying it that the ONT 310 is removed from a network (e.g., PON 300). The PON card, 320 may then delete an ONT record corresponding to the ONT 310.
Elements of the PON 300 in the embodiments described above may be configured to perform the functions described above to assist in areas such as network management housekeeping, inventory management, or future customer installation with ONTs that were previously deployed in the network.
In the example embodiment shown in
If the ONT is subsequently powered up and does not become ranged by the OLT 430 within a time period defined by the timing mechanism 416, a default updating unit 413 accesses a database 415 of ONT default settings 417 and updates the ONT settings in NVRAM 414 with the ONT default settings 417. The default settings may disable one or more communications services between the OLT 430 and the ONT 410. The length of time defined in the timing mechanism 416 may be configurable by the OLT 430 or the PON card 420 via a communications line 419. The length of time may be configured to be long enough to allow a technician to remove the ONT 410 and perform maintenance or other troubleshooting activities. Thus, the above elements of the ONT 410 are configured to ensure, for example, that an unauthorized person who removes an ONT is prevented from connecting the ONT 410 to a different PON card (not shown) or to a different port (not shown) of the same PON card 420 and have access to unauthorized communications services.
For example, a homeowner may remove an ONT from her premises and give it to her neighbor or a thief may remove an ONT from a person's premises. The neighbor or thief, in turn, may connect the ONT to a different PON card or to a different port of the same PON card in an attempt to access video services without authorization from a service provider. An ONT according to embodiments of the present invention, however, prevents such activity.
In the example embodiment shown in
The OLT A monitoring unit 536a is configured to detect when an ONT is removed from the PON 500 without being properly deleted. After the OLT A monitoring unit 536a detects that ONT B 510b is removed from the PON 500, a notification unit (not shown) in communication with the OLT A monitoring unit 536a may notify the management system 505 that the ONT B 510b is removed from the PON 500 without being properly deleted. The monitoring units 536a, 536b then monitor for a presence of ONT B 510b at a different OLT (OLT B 530b) or different port at the same OLT (OLT A 530a). After a monitoring unit 536b in OLT B 530b detects the presence of ONT B 510b, a default updating unit (not shown) at OLT B 530b updates the settings of ONT B 510b with default settings to disable at least one service between ONT B 510b and OLT B 530b. In another scenario, the monitoring unit 536a at OLT A 530a may detect a presence of ONT B 510b at a different port of OLT A 530a. In this instance, OLT A 530a includes a default updating unit (not shown) that updates the settings of ONT B 510b with default settings to disable at least one service between ONT B 510b and the different port of OLT A 530a
The monitoring units 536a, 536b may provide information directly to the management system 505 before, simultaneously with, or after causing the ONT B 510b to update its settings with default settings. Further, the OLTs 530a, 530b, after detecting at monitoring units 536a, 536b the removal of an ONT (e.g., ONT B 510b), may maintain a report of this information. This allows a service provider to know of those ONTs that have or have not been properly deleted. These reports may be used by other people in inventory management to ensure that ONTs that might have a problem can be dealt with in-house instead of being redeployed to the customer to give the new customer problems with an ONT.
If uninterrupted communications have not been reestablished (911), the ONT continues to monitor whether the timing mechanism has expired (908). The settings of the ONT are updated (914) with default settings that disable one or more communications services between an OLT and the ONT after the timing mechanism expires and before the flow diagram ends (915).
While this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.
Although several embodiments are described in terms of optical elements, other embodiments may be applied to other networks, such as wired or wireless networks. For example, the OLT and ONTs may correspond to routers and servers in an electrical network.
It should be understood that removing an ONT from a network includes deleting an ONT record corresponding to the ONT, for example, from a management system, an OLT, or a PON card.
It should be also understood that elements of the block diagrams and flow diagrams described above may be implemented in software, hardware, or firmware. In addition, the elements of the block diagrams and flow diagrams described above may be combined or divided in any manner in software, hardware, or firmware. If implemented in software, the software may be written in any language that can support the embodiments disclosed herein. The software may be stored on any form of computer-readable medium, such as RAM, ROM, CD-ROM, and so forth. In operation, a general purpose or application specific processor loads and executes the software in a manner well understood in the art.
