Patent ID: 7715363

Claim:
A method for networking a plurality of endpoints within a plurality of local access networks, the method comprising: establishing a plurality of local access networks; establishing a plurality of endpoints, each endpoint directly connected to a local access network, the plurality of endpoints comprising at least one branch office of a banking enterprise and at least one automatic teller machine of the banking enterprise; establishing a plurality of points of presence, at least one point of presence from the plurality of points of presence directly connected to each of the plurality of local access networks, each of the plurality of points of presence directly connected to the local access networks with no additional network between the local access network and the point of presence; establishing a plurality of optical nodes, at least one optical node of the plurality of optical nodes directly connected to at least one point of presence of the plurality of points of presence; establishing a high bandwidth optical backbone connected to at least a first optical node of the plurality of optical nodes, with no additional network between the first optical node and the high bandwidth optical backbone; establishing a central office connected to at least a second optical node of the plurality of optical nodes, wherein the second optical node is connected to the high bandwidth optical backbone, with no additional network between the high bandwidth optical backbone and the second optical node and with no additional network between the second optical node and the central office; at the central office, formatting a signal for transmission; transmitting the signal from the central office, through the second optical node, through the high bandwidth optical backbone, through the first optical node to at least one point of presence of the plurality of points of presence; routing the signal from the at least one point of presence over a local access network to at least one endpoint of the plurality of endpoints; and receiving the signal at the endpoint.