Abstract— As bandwidth requirements of access networks
continue to increase rapidly, especially due to the growth of
streaming traffic, the need for resolving bandwidth contention
among competing users and applications becomes more
compelling. The proposed Software-Defined Ethernet Passive
Optical Network (EPON) architecture utilizes an applicationlevel feedback from the client side (for video users) to the
network through a Software-Defined-Network (SDN) controller
to achieve better client-and-service-level differentiation in the
downstream direction of an EPON access network. Numerical
results obtained from simulation experiments demonstrate that
the proposed architecture with downstream resource allocation
for video streaming applications considerably reduce video stalls
and increase video buffer level at the client applications leading
to better Quality of Experience (QoE) for users along with better
client-and-service-level differentiation.