Patent ID: 7283753

Claim:
A method of optical communication, comprising: a) generating a plurality of optical signals, each optical signal having a specified duration and a specified wavelength; and b) passively transporting each optical signal from an origination node of a network to a destination node determined by the signal wavelength; wherein: c) the network includes at least one branch point having two or more output branches; d) for at least one of the signals of said plurality, the passive transport of that signal to its destination node comprises transporting the signal out of at least one branch point of the network through an output branch determined by the signal wavelength; e) the generating and transporting of optical signals are carried out such that at least two distinct optical signals having distinct signal wavelengths are transmitted from a common origination node to different destination nodes; f) the plurality of optical signals is generated according to a schedule; and g) the schedule is devised to substantially prevent collisions, a collision being the concurrent arrival, at the same destination node, of signals having the same wavelength but coming from different origination nodes.