| CPC H04B 10/077 (2013.01) [H04J 14/0245 (2013.01); H04J 14/0249 (2013.01)] | 30 Claims |

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1. A method of reducing power consumption in a multi-channel passive optical network (PON), comprising:
detecting a currently inactive channel based on a result of monitoring individual channels in the multi-channel PON;
determining whether the detected inactive channel has remained inactive for an extended period of time;
deactivating the detected inactive channel by deenergizing a transmitter associated with the detected inactive channel in response to determining that the detected inactive channel has remained inactive for an extended period of time;
periodically probing the deactivated channel to determine whether an optical signal is reliably present on the deactivated channel by:
determining a ratio between a number of probes within a time period that detected a presence of the signal and a total number of probes within that time period; and
determining whether the determined ratio exceeds a threshold value; and
reactivating the channel by reenergizing the transmitter associated with the inactive channel in response to determining that the optical signal has been reliably present on the deactivated channel.
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