  The Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) has recently emerged as the
mainstream of broadband access networks. The registration process of EPON,
defined by the IEEE 802.3av standard, is a multi-point control protocol (MPCP)
within the media access control (MAC) layer. As with other contention-based
channel access methods, such as ALOHA and CSMA, stability and delay are
critical issues concerning the performances of implementing the protocol on
systems with finite channel capacity. In this paper, the registration process
of an EPON subscriber, called optical network units (ONUs), is modeled as a
discrete-time Markov chain, from which we derive the fundamental throughput
equation of EPON that characterizes the registration processes. The solutions
of this characteristic equation depend on the maximum waiting time. The aim of
our stability analysis is to pinpoint the region of the maximum waiting time
that can guarantee a stable registration throughput and a bounded registration
delay. For a maximum waiting time selected from the stable region, we obtain
the expression of registration delay experienced by an ONU attempting to
register. All analytic results presented in this paper were verified by
simulations.
