Patent ID: 6895185

Claim:
A multi-purpose optical fiber access network capable of accepting access services provided by a hybrid wireline/wireless access network, the optical fiber access a network comprising: (a) a central office/headend configured to generate optical wavelengths for the access services, allocate the optical wavelengths to corresponding access services, multiplex the optical wavelengths for the respective access services and transmit the multiplexed optical wavelengths signals to a first downstream optical fiber, and convert signals received from a first upstream optical fiber into electrical signals after splitting the received signals; and (b) a remote node, connected with a plurality of remote base stations and optical network units, the remote node configured to split the multiplexed optical wavelengths received from the first downstream optical fiber into signals according to wireline/wireless access service and transmit wireless signals through an antenna after opto-electric conversion and transmit wireline signals to the remote base stations and optical network units through corresponding second downstream optical fibers, and convert wireless access service signals received from the antenna into optical signals and multiplex the received wireless service signals with signals received from the remote base stations and optical network units through corresponding second upstream optical fibers and transmit the multiplexed signals to the central office/headend through the first upstream optical fiber, wherein (i) each of the plurality of remote base stations is arranged adjacent to one of the plurality of optical network units; (ii) each remote base station and its adjacent optical network unit jointly own one of the second downstream optical fibers, one of the second upstream optical fibers, a first wavelength division multiplexer and a second wavelength division multiplexer; (iii) the first wavelength division multiplexer is configured to split the signals received from the jointly owned second downstream optical fiber and transmit the split signals to a receiver of each of the remote base stations and its respective optical network unit; and (iv) the second wavelength division multiplexer is configured to multiplex signals received from the remote base stations and its respective optical network unit and transmit the multiplexed signals to the remote node through the jointly owned second upstream optical fiber.