PON Energy Saving Proof of Concept and Experiment based on Traffic Prediction using fine granular Telemetry
2025-07-07 Posted by Jian Tang (China Telecommunications), PoC leader, Rapporteur of telemetry and PON management work items 13 HitsElectricity costs are a major operational expense for telecom operators, making energy efficiency critical. Strategies like optimizing device power consumption and adjusting operational modes can significantly reduce energy use and expenses. In Passive Optical Networks (PONs), traffic volumes fluctuate rapidly, creating periods of low activity. Leveraging this, PON ports can transit to low-power modes during idle periods to conserve energy. Achieving this requires a real-time traffic load sensing system that dynamically adjusts the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) interface mode based on energy-saving scenarios, enabling a closed-loop mechanism for perception, control, and execution. Accurate traffic prediction is essential for effective energy savings. Traditional SNMP polling (15-minute intervals) is too slow for granular traffic forecasting. China Telecom addressed this by pioneering Technical Specifications for Access Network Telemetry, enabling rapid data collection via active reporting protocols (see ETSI GS F5G 011 V1.1.1 (2022‑11) and ETSI GS F5G 016 V1.1.1 (2023‑06). A Proof of Concept and experiments in a region have been performed. There is no customer complaint claimed when energy-saving is enabled, so services are not affected or the impact is small.