Multipoint gating control block in an Ethernet passive optical network and method therefor

A MAC (Medium Access Control) control block for controlling transmission of data between a plurality of MAC clients and a plurality of MACs in an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON), comprising:

• a plurality of optical multipoint (OMP) blocks connected between the MAC clients and the MACs for implementing a multipoint control protocol (MPCP);
• and
• a multipoint gating control block configured to receive transmission_in_progress state variables from the OMP blocks connected to their associated MAC clients, to determine transmission states of the MAC clients with the received transmission_in_progress state variables, and to selectively control the OMP blocks so that when any one of the OMP blocks is transmitting the data, the other OMP blocks are prevented from transmitting data,
• wherein each of the transmission_in_progress state variables indicates whether a corresponding MAC client is transmitting data or not, and
• wherein each of the transmission in progress state variables is expressed as a Boolean value indicating whether a corresponding MAC client is transmitting data or not.