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Systems and methods are provided for customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON). A system includes a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optic

Systems and methods are provided for customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON). A system includes a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through the PON when in an active mode and to enter the sleep mode when not receiving data packets in the data plane. A system further includes a micro-controller, separate from the packet processor, configured to receive from an OLT operation and management (OAM) messages that are transmitted in a control plane, and to process the OAM messages by, selectively transmitting to a central office, without waking up the packet processor, an acknowledgement message, or waking up the packet processor to receive data packets in the data plane.

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1. Customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON), the CPE comprising: a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through t

1. Customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON), the CPE comprising: a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through the PON when in the active mode as well as transmit packets in a data plane towards the OLT through the PON, and to enter the sleep mode when not receiving data packets in the data plane;a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the OLT to a user device; anda micro-controller, separate from the packet processor, the micro-controller configured to function as a proxy for a particular peripheral device, so as to receive from an OLT, when the plurality of peripheral devices are in a low power mode, operation and management (OAM) messages that are transmitted in a control plane, an OAM message requesting an acknowledgment associated with the particular peripheral device, and to process the OAM messages by, selectively transmitting to a central office, without waking up the packet processor from the sleep mode and without waking up the particular peripheral device from the low power mode, an acknowledgement message for the particular peripheral device, orwaking up the packet processor to receive data packets in the data plane. 2. The CPE of claim 1, wherein the micro-controller is configured to periodically receive the OAM messages from the central office during periods when no data packets are being received from the central office. 3. The CPE of claim 2, wherein the OAM messages received from the central office are GPON physical layer operations and maintenance (PLOAM) messages. 4. The CPE of claim 2, wherein the OAM messages received from the central office are EPON multi-point control protocol (MPCP) messages. 5. The CPE of claim 2, wherein the micro-controller is configured to utilize the OAM messages and one or more acknowledgment, status, or report messages to maintain synchronization and connectivity between the CPE and the OLT according to a relevant protocol. 6. The CPE of claim 1, wherein the packet processor is configured to command the plurality of peripheral devices to enter the low power mode. 7. The CPE of claim 1, wherein the micro-controller is configured to command the plurality of peripheral devices to enter the low power mode. 8. The CPE of claim 1, wherein the micro-controller is responsive to one or more tightly coupled memories that contain instructions and data for handling OAM messages from the OLT. 9. Customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON), the CPE comprising: a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through the PON when in the active mode as well as transmit packets in a data plane towards the OLT through the PON, and to enter the sleep mode when not receiving data packets in the data plane;an instruction set tightly coupled memory configured to receive application instruction data from the packet processor during an initialization process;a data tightly coupled memory; anda micro-controller, separate from the packet processor and responsive to the instruction set tightly coupled memory and to the data tightly coupled memory, the micro-controller being configured to receive from an OLT operation and management (OAM) messages that are transmitted in a control plane, and to process the OAM messages by, selectively transmitting to a central office, without waking up the packet processor, an acknowledgement message, wherein the micro-controller transmits the acknowledgement message using the application instruction data, orwaking up the packet processor to receive data packets in the data plane, wherein the microcontroller wakes up the packet processor using the application instruction data. 10. A method of communicating with an optical line terminal (OLT) through a passive optical network (PON), the method comprising: receiving data packets at a customer premises equipment (CPE) device;processing the received data packets at a packet processor of the CPE device;placing the packet processor into a sleep mode when no data packets are received for at least a threshold period of time;placing a plurality of peripheral devices configured to facilitate communication of data from the service provider through the PON to a user device into a low power mode;receiving, at the CPE device, operation and management (OAM) messages or an upstream bandwidth allocation from the OLT, the OAM messages including a particular OAM message that seeks an acknowledgment from a particular one of the peripheral devices;transmitting one or more acknowledgment, status, or report messages to the OLT according to a relevant protocol in response to the OAM messages using a micro-controller module that is a separate module from the packet processor without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode;transmitting an acknowledgment to the particular OAM message using the micro-controller without waking the particular peripheral device from the low power mode, the micro-controller being configured to act as a proxy for the particular peripheral device in transmitting the acknowledgment to the particular OAM message;receiving a data packet or an indication of an incoming data packet at the CPE device; andusing the micro-controller to wake the packet processor from the sleep mode in response to the receiving of the data packet or indication. 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: periodically receiving additional OAM messages and transmitting additional one or more acknowledgments, status, or report messages as required by the relevant protocol during a period when no data packets are being received. 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting acknowledgement messages comprises processing at the micro-controller GPON OAM messages in the form of physical layer operations and maintenance (PLOAM) messages. 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting acknowledgement messages comprises processing at the micro-controller EPON OAM messages in the form of multi-point control protocol (MPCP) messages. 14. The method of claim 10, further comprising: maintaining synchronization and connectivity between the CPE and the OLT using the OAM messages and the acknowledgment, status, or report messages according to the relevant protocol. 15. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the packet processor to command the plurality of peripheral devices to enter the low power mode before the packet processor enters the sleep mode. 16. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the micro-controller to command the plurality of peripheral devices to enter the low power mode before the packet processor enters the sleep mode. 17. The method of claim 10, further comprising: using the micro-controller without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode in order to generate and transmit idle frames and/or messages in response to the corresponding upstream bandwidth allocation as mandated by the relevant PON protocol, when there is no user traffic to send to the OLT. 18. The method of claim 10, further comprising: transmitting idle frames and/or messages to the OLT according to the relevant PON protocol in response to the corresponding upstream bandwidth allocation received from the OLT. 19. A method of communicating with an optical line terminal (OLT) through a passive optical network (PON), the method comprising: receiving data packets at a customer premises equipment (CPE) device;processing the received data packets at a packet processor of the CPE device;placing the packet processor into a sleep mode when no data packets are received for at least a threshold period of time;receiving, at the CPE device, an operation and management (OAM) message or upstream bandwidth allocation from the OLT;using a micro-controller to access application instruction data from a memory, the micro-controller being a separate module from the packet processor;transmitting, using the application instruction data, one or more acknowledgment, status, or report messages to the OLT according to a relevant protocol in response to the OAM message using the micro-controller without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode;receiving a data packet or an indication of an incoming data packet at the CPE device; andusing the micro-controller to wake the packet processor from the sleep mode in response to the receiving of the data packet or indication. 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: initializing the micro-controller, wherein initializing the micro-controller includes populating the memory with instruction data from the packet processor. 21. The CPE of claim 9, wherein the micro-controller is configured to periodically receive OAM messages from the central office during periods when no data packets are being received from the central office. 22. The method of claim 19, further comprising: periodically receiving additional OAM messages and transmitting additional one or more acknowledgments, status, or report messages as required by the relevant protocol during a period when no data packets are being received. 23. The method of claim 19, further comprising: using the micro-controller without waking the packet processor from the sleep mode in order to generate and transmit idle frames and/or messages in response to the corresponding upstream bandwidth allocation as mandated by the relevant PON protocol, when there is no user traffic to send to the OLT.