VMP: A MAC Protocol for EPON-Based Video-Dominated FiWi Access Networks

Optical and wireless network technologies are expected to converge in the near to midterm, giving rise to bimodal FIber-WIreless (FiWi) broadband access networks. In triple-play (voice, video, and data) service scenarios for such FiWi access networks, video traffic will likely dominate due to the widely predicted increase in video network services and the high traffic volume of compressed video compared to voice and data services. In this paper, the authors introduce and evaluate a comprehensive Video MAC Protocol (VMP) to efficiently deliver prerecorded video downstream to wireless consumers over a FiWi network in the presence of voice and data upstream and downstream traffic.