Supporting communications in optical communication systems

1 . An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

support, by an optical network unit (ONU) within a passive optical network, a set of ONU instances of the ONU including at least a first ONU instance of the ONU and a second ONU instance of the ONU, wherein the ONU instances in the set of ONU instances are active concurrently at the ONU, wherein the first ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a first allocation identifier and supports a first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the second ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a second allocation identifier different than the first allocation identifier and supports a second set of upstream communication settings different than the first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the first set of upstream communication settings includes a first upstream line rate and the second set of upstream communication settings includes a second upstream line rate different than the first upstream line rate; and

support, by the ONU, upstream communications from the ONU to an optical line terminal (OLT) according to different upstream communication settings by switching between ONU instances within the set of ONU instances of the ONU for upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first ONU instance has a first ONU identifier associated therewith, wherein the second ONU instance has a second ONU identifier associated therewith.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the first set of upstream communication settings includes a first forward error correction code and the second set of upstream communication settings includes a second forward error correction code different than the first forward error correction code.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, to support the set of ONU instances of the ONU, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

instantiate the first ONU instance based on a first set of control messages from the OLT, wherein the first set of control messages indicates a first ONU identifier indicative of the first allocation identifier and indicates the first set of upstream communication settings; and

instantiate the second ONU instance based on a second set of control messages from the OLT, wherein the second set of control messages indicates a second ONU identifier indicative of the second allocation identifier and indicates the second set of upstream communication settings.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, to support the upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

switch between use of the first ONU instance and the second ONU instance from upstream burst to upstream burst.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, to support the upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receive, by the ONU from the OLT, scheduling information for an upstream burst to be sent by the ONU, wherein the scheduling information is indicative that the first instance of the ONU is to be used for the upstream burst to be sent by the ONU;

generate, by the ONU based on the first set of upstream communication settings of the first instance of the ONU, a burst signal; and

transmit, by the ONU toward the OLT, the burst signal.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein, to generate the burst signal, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

receive upstream data from a data queue;

encapsulate the upstream data;

generate a header for the upstream data, where the header includes an ONU identifier of the first instance of the ONU;

associate the header with the upstream data to form an upstream data frame; and

generate the burst signal from the upstream data frame.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein, to support the upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

support, by the ONU, bonding of the upstream communication of the first ONU instance and the upstream communication of the second ONU instance.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

support, by the ONU based on the set of ONU instances of the ONU, downstream communications from the OLT to the ONU.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the set of ONU instances operates on the same wavelength.

11 . A method, comprising:

supporting, by an optical network unit (ONU) within a passive optical network, a set of ONU instances of the ONU including at least a first ONU instance of the ONU and a second ONU instance of the ONU, wherein the ONU instances in the set of ONU instances are active concurrently at the ONU, wherein the first ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a first allocation identifier and supports a first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the second ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a second allocation identifier different than the first allocation identifier and supports a second set of upstream communication settings different than the first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the first set of upstream communication settings includes a first upstream line rate and the second set of upstream communication settings includes a second upstream line rate different than the first upstream line rate; and

supporting, by the ONU, upstream communications from the ONU to an optical line terminal (OLT) according to different upstream communication settings by switching between ONU instances within the set of ONU instances of the ONU for upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT.

12 . An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

support, by an optical line terminal (OLT) for an optical network unit (ONU) within a passive optical network, a set of ONU instances of the ONU including at least a first ONU instance of the ONU and a second ONU instance of the ONU, wherein the ONU instances in the set of ONU instances are active concurrently for the ONU, wherein the first ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a first allocation identifier and supports a first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the second ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a second allocation identifier different than the first allocation identifier and supports a second set of upstream communication settings different than the first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the first set of upstream communication settings includes a first upstream line rate and the second set of upstream communication settings includes a second upstream line rate different than the first upstream line rate; and

support, by the OLT, upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT according to different upstream communication settings by switching between ONU instances within the set of ONU instances of the ONU for upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the first ONU instance has a first ONU identifier associated therewith, wherein the second ONU instance has a second ONU identifier associated therewith.

14 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein, to support the set of ONU instances of the ONU, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

send, from the OLT toward the ONU, a first set of control messages indicating a first ONU identifier indicative of the first allocation identifier and indicating the first set of upstream communication settings; and

send, from the OLT toward the ONU, a second set of control messages indicating a second ONU identifier indicative of the second allocation identifier and indicating the second set of upstream communication settings.

15 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

allocate a burst grant to the ONU by allocating the burst grant to the first ONU instance or the second ONU instance.

16 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

determine a condition associated with the ONU; and

allocate a burst grant to the ONU by allocating the burst grant to the first ONU instance or the second ONU instance based on the condition associated with the ONU.

17 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein, to support the upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

support, by the OLT, bonding of the upstream communication of the first ONU instance and the upstream communication of the second ONU instance such that, for a traffic flow of the ONU, packets of the traffic flow sent based on the first ONU instance and packets of the traffic flow sent based on the second ONU instance are directed to a common reassembly queue.

18 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

support, by the OLT based on the set of ONU instances of the ONU, downstream communications from the OLT to the ONU.

19 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the set of ONU instances operates on the same wavelength.

20 . A method, comprising:

supporting, by an optical line terminal (OLT) for an optical network unit (ONU) within a passive optical network, a set of ONU instances of the ONU including at least a first ONU instance of the ONU and a second ONU instance of the ONU, wherein the ONU instances in the set of ONU instances are active concurrently for the ONU, wherein the first ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a first allocation identifier and supports a first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the second ONU instance of the ONU has assigned thereto a second allocation identifier different than the first allocation identifier and supports a second set of upstream communication settings different than the first set of upstream communication settings, wherein the first set of upstream communication settings includes a first upstream line rate and the second set of upstream communication settings includes a second upstream line rate different than the first upstream line rate; and

supporting, by the OLT, upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT according to different upstream communication settings by switching between ONU instances within the set of ONU instances of the ONU for upstream communications from the ONU to the OLT.