It should be understood that the inventive ONUs or OLTs described herein may include one or more electronic processors that are operable to retrieve and execute instructions stored as electronic signals in electronic memory, where a set of such stored instructions may constitute steps in an inventive process (e.g., a “l(fā)earning process”) or application, or may be used to complete an inventive function such as allocating, analyzing, determining, estimating, receiving, transmitting, generating, mapping, prohibiting, scheduling, initiating, computing and storing to name just a few inventive functions that may be completed by executing such stored electronic instructions. Further, it should be understood that each of the embodiments of the ONUs, OLTs and other associated devices described herein are configured with the necessary hardware components to enable each to process signals and content (e.g., traffic) much faster than humanly possible and to exchange signaling and content much faster than humanly possible. Each of the embodiments of the present invention cannot practically be implemented in any amount of time that would be acceptable to one skilled in the art using human beings as substitutes for the systems and devices described herein. For example, the embodiments described herein involve methods that avoid or reduce delays in a PON network. Accordingly, the use of humans as substitutes for such methodologies is contrary to the objectives of the invention and does not result in the improvements provided by the invention because the inventive methodologies process signals and content (traffic) many times faster than the human mind (within the time periods demanded by users of embodiments of the present invention and those skilled in the art of the present invention).