Reliability evaluation of 10G-EPON ONU with soft error detection and autonomous reset method

Abstract

The impact of soft errors on communication devices are increasing as semiconductor chips become more integrated and miniaturized. Furthermore, since optical network units (ONUs) are installed for each subscriber, frequent failures due to soft errors in the entire network are expected. As a result, there are concerns about Internet outage or frequent recover action. Therefore, focusing on the fact that soft errors can be recovered by rebooting, we developed a mechanism to detect soft errors and perform an autonomous reset, and implemented it in a 10G-EPON ONU. In experiments using neutron irradiation, the failure rate of the implemented 10G-EPON ONU was reduced to 1/860 compared with unimplemented 10G-EPON ONU. As a result, the implemented 10G-EPON ONU showed a significant improvement in reliability against soft errors.