System and method for passive optical network communication

An optical line terminal (OLT) comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• broadcast a first allocation structure comprising a first allocation identification number (Alloc-ID) field and a first start time of a first quiet window, the first Alloc-ID field having a value of 1022 to indicate that ONUs supporting a first upstream line rate are permitted to transmit a first serial number response to register with the OLT during the first quiet window;
• and
• broadcast a second allocation structure comprising a second allocation identification number (Alloc-ID) field and a second start time of a second quiet window, the second Alloc-ID having a value of 1023 to indicate that ONUs supporting a second upstream line rate are permitted to transmit a second serial number response to register with the OLT during the second quiet window, the second upstream line rate being different than the first upstream line rate.

An optical network unit (ONU) comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• receive a first allocation structure from an optical line terminal (OLT), the first allocation structure comprising a first allocation identification number (Alloc-ID) field and a first start time of a first quiet window, the first Alloc-ID field having a value of 1022 to indicate that ONUs supporting a first upstream line rate are permitted to transmit a first serial number response to register with the OLT during the first quiet window;
• and
• receive a second allocation structure from the OLT, the second allocation structure comprising a second allocation structure Alloc-ID field and a second start time of a second quiet window, the second Alloc-ID having a value of 1023 to indicate that ONUs supporting a second upstream line rate are permitted to transmit a second serial number response to register with the OLT during the second quiet window, the second upstream line rate being different than the first upstream line rate.