Patent ID: 8139939

Claim:
A passive optical network, comprising: an optical line termination and at least one group of optical network terminations; point-to-multipoint connections between said optical line termination and said at least one group of optical network terminations; and an optical splitter and a metro access point connected between said at least one group of optical network terminations and said optical line termination; wherein the passive optical network is configured: for transmitting first downstream multiplex signals using a first down-stream wavelength band from said optical line termination to said metro access point and for transmitting first upstream multiplex burst signals using a first upstream wavelength band, having the same spectral range as the first downstream wavelength band, from said metro access point to said optical line termination; for transmitting at least one second downstream multiplex signals using a second downstream wavelength band from said optical line termination to said metro access point and for transmitting second upstream multiplex burst signals using a second upstream wavelength band, having the same spectral range as the second downstream wavelength band, from said metro access point to said optical line termination; for transmitting a first downstream multiplex signal by first down-stream channels, from said metro access point via an optical fiber and a splitter in an optical distribution network to a group of optical network terminations and for transmitting a second downstream multiplex signal by second downstream channels from said metro access point via said optical fiber and said splitter to the same group of optical network terminations; and said optical network terminations including: a first type of optical network terminations configured to accept first downstream channels and to transmit a first upstream multiplex burst signal in a first upstream channel; and a second type of optical network terminations configured to accept second downstream channels and to transmit a second upstream multiplex burst signal in a second upstream channel; and wherein time slots of the second downstream multiplex signal and/or time slots of the second upstream multiplex burst signal are longer than time slots of the first downstream multiplex signal and/or time slots of the first upstream multiplex burst signal, respectively.