Patent ID: 7092634

Claim:
A bidirectional wavelength division multiplexed self-healing ring network, comprising: A central office; A plurality of remote nodes; and two optical fibers connecting the central office and the remote nodes in a ring form to allow optical signals to be bidirectionally received and transmitted between the central office and the remote nodes; wherein one of the two optical fibers is a drop fiber for transmitting optical signals from the central office to the remote nodes and the other is an add fiber for transmitting optical signals from the remote nodes to the central office; wherein wavelengths of wavelength division multiplexed signals transmitted from the remote nodes to the central office through the add fiber in a clockwise direction are allowed to be the same as wavelengths of wavelength division multiplexed signals transmitted from the remote nodes to the central office through the add fiber in a counterclockwise direction; and wherein an optical receiving part of the central office demultiplexes two groups of wavelength division multiplexed optical signals transmitted through the add fiber in both directions, respectively, selects one group of optical signals transmitted in a single direction using a 1×2 optical switch and receives the optical signals using a receiver, or receives two groups of optical signals transmitted in both directions using two optical receivers and selects one group of optical signals having better signal performance.