US Patent 10447398 Upstream scheduling for optical networking unit (ONU)

In one embodiment, a method analyzes a size of a grant included in an upstream transmission from the device using a radio frequency over an optical network. When the size of the grant is less than a threshold, scheduling the upstream transmission on a first type of channel. The first type of channel includes characteristics of transmission such that an optical transmitter of an optical networking unit that receives the upstream transmission from the device will turn on when transmitting the upstream transmission via the optical network. When the size of the grant is greater than the threshold, scheduling the upstream transmission on a second type of channel. The size of the grant is such that the optical transmitter that receives the upstream transmission from the device is predicted to turn on when transmitting the upstream transmission via the optical network.