WAVELENGTH-BASED UPLINK RANDOM ACCESS IN AN OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK FOR A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM (WCS)

Wavelength-based random access in an optical communications network for a wireless communications system (WCS) is disclosed. An optical network unit(s) (ONU(s)) is configured to generate a random access signal comprising an unsolicited buffer occupancy (BO) report to request uplink allocation as soon as the ONU(s) receives a non-periodic uplink data burst. The ONU(s) then sends an optical random access signal including the unsolicited BO report to an optical line terminator (OLT) based on a random access wavelength, which is so determined not to cause any interference with a downlink optical communications signal(s) and an uplink optical communications signal(s) being regularly communicated between the OLT and the ONU(s). As a result, it is possible to reduce access delay at the ONU(s) for sending the non-periodic uplink data burst without requiring frequent polling from the OLT, thus helping to reduce signaling overhead and improve throughput of the optical communications network.