Large-capacity local access network

A large-capacity local access network providing users with a dedicated two-way link to a central office is presented. The network is built along a single optical fiber ring. Connection to the fiber is obtained by combining time-division-multiplexing (TDM) and frequency-division-multiplexing (FDM) techniques and by using a novel optical channel add-drop filter. Optical signals are generated at the central office. The users have a simple device integrated with the channel dropping filter to receive and transmit data without the use of an optical source. Such a system can support 210 users transmitting at 100 Mb/s.>