Digital overlay
A method and apparatus for performing a digital overlay in a passive optical network is disclosed. In one embodiment the method comprises sending one or more Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) messages to an optical network unit (ONU) in a passive optical network (PON) using a first physical interface, and sending one or more multicast data streams associated with the one or more IGMP messages using a second physical interface, where the first and second physical interfaces are different.
1 . A method comprising:
sending one or more Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) messages to an optical network unit (ONU) in a passive optical network (PON) using a first physical interface; and
sending one or more multicast data streams associated with the one or more 1 GMP messages using a second physical interface, the first and second physical interfaces being different.
2 . The method defined in claim 1 wherein the one or more multicast data streams comprise IP video.
3 . The method defined in claim 1 further comprising sending the one or more IGMP messages on a PON link while the one or more multicast data streams associated with the one or more IGMP messages flow on an overlay.
4 . The method defined in claim 3 wherein the one or more multicast data streams comprise IP video.
5 . The method defined in claim 3 wherein speed of the overlay is greater than speed of the PON link.
6 . The method defined in claim 5 wherein the speed of the overlay is a magnitude greater than the speed of the PON link.
7 . The method defined in claim 3 further comprising sending one or more IGMP messages upstream from the ONU on the PON link.
8 . The method defined in claim 7 wherein the one or more IGMP messages sent upstream comprise a request that is satisfied with a multicast data stream sent using the second physical interface.