On the effect of sudden data bursts in the upstream channel of Ethernet PONs employing IPACT under the gated-service discipline

This paper studies the performance behaviour of the upstream channel of EPONs employing IPACT with the gated-service disciple, under Poisson traffic together with sudden bursts. We show that one burst arrival produces a peak in the average transmission window of every ONU, lasting its effects for several cycle times, depending on the burst size and the average network load. Such a burst has a direct impact on the delay experienced by the packets of other ONUs. This is mathematically modelled using a modification of the formerly studied M/G/1 queue with vacations and validated with simulation.