Patent ID: 7599386

Claim:
A method for establishing subscriber connections between a central site and a plurality of subscriber premises in a Fiber To The Curb (FTTC) network, the method comprising: coupling an RDSLAM by at least one optical fiber to the central site; coupling the at least one optical fiber to a passive optical element in the RDSLAM; coupling a plurality of subscriber transmission devices to the RDSLAM via a corresponding plurality of subscriber-specific electrically conductive transmission lines; coupling each subscriber-specific electrically conductive transmission line to a corresponding one of subscriber-specific conversion elements in the RDSLAM; and coupling each of the conversion elements optically to the passive optical element, wherein each of the conversion elements is constructed to: (a) produce a subscriber-specific electric signal from downstream signals received from the passive optical element and to feed the subscriber-specific electric signal to the corresponding electrically conductive transmission line; (b) convert a subscriber-specific upstream signal received from the corresponding electrically conductive transmission line to an upstream optical signal and to feed the upstream optical signal to the passive optical element; (c) operate independently of other conversion elements in the RDSLAM; and (d) receive operating power of that conversion element through the corresponding electrically conductive transmission line; and wherein the passive optical element is constructed to: (a) receive the downstream signals from the at least one optical fiber and distribute the downstream signals to the conversion elements; and (b) combine the upstream optical signals received from the conversion elements onto the at least one optical fiber.