  We report the current status of our research on the clean-slate design of
next-generation optical access (NGOA). We have been studying candidate
architectures with a major focus on their elasticity to user demands, energy
efficiency, and support of better Quality of Experience (QoE). One of the major
challenges in this study is to establish a comparative analysis framework where
we can assess the performances of candidate architectures in an objective and
quantifiable way. In this paper we describe our efforts to meet this challenge:
(1) the development of a new comparison framework based on integrated QoE and
statistical hypothesis testing and (2) the implementation of a virtual test bed
capturing important aspects from physical layer to application layer to
end-user behaviour governing traffic generation. The comparison framework and
the virtual test bed will provide researchers a sound basis and useful tools
for comparative analysis in the clean-slate design of NGOA.
