Patent ID: 8837943

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a plurality of nodes adapted to provide for a communication with one or more devices; a central node; a passive optical network comprising a multiplexer/demultiplexer device adapted to demultiplex a first optical signal from the central node to the plurality of nodes, and to multiplex second optical signals from one or more of the nodes, each node having allocated a wavelength for generating its optical signal; wherein for directly transmitting signals from one node to at least one of the other nodes, the one node is adapted to generate a third optical signal at a wavelength allocated to the at least one of the other nodes; and wherein the multiplexer/demultiplexer device of the passive optical network is adapted to combine the third optical signal from the one node with the first optical signal, wherein the multiplexer/demultiplexer device comprises: a first plurality of input/output (I/O) ports comprising one I/O port adapted to be coupled to the central node and other I/O ports not including the one I/O port; a second plurality of input/output (I/O) ports, wherein individual I/O ports of the second plurality of I/O ports are adapted to be coupled to one of the nodes; wherein the multiplexer/demultiplexer device is adapted to demultiplex the first optical signal sent to the one I/O port from the central node to the nodes via the second plurality of I/O ports and to multiplex the second optical signals sent to the second plurality of I/O ports from the nodes; and a passive optical coupler arranged for coupling the one I/O port to the other I/O ports, the passive optical coupler being adapted to combine the third optical signal sent from the one node with the first optical signal.