COMMUNICATION IN PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORKS (PONS) RELATED TO DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR OPTICAL SIGNAL (ODSP)

A first apparatus in an optical communications network, the first apparatus comprises a transmitter; a receiver; a first MAC; and a first oDSP coupled to the transmitter, the receiver, and the first MAC and configured to communicate a message via a dedicated C&M channel with at least one of the first MAC, a second MAC in a second apparatus in the optical communications network, or a second oDSP in the second apparatus. A method comprises receiving an FS message comprising a PLOAM field, the PLOAM field contains oDSP-related C&M information, and the oDSP-related C&M information comprises a message type ID field and a Message_Content field; reading the message type ID field; and deciding, based on the message type ID field, whether to read the Message_Content field.