Patent ID: 7319817

Claim:
A WDM fiber optical ring network for communicating information in a metro access area using one or more wavelengths, which can be shared by a plurality of user terminals, comprising: a fiber optical feeder ring; a plurality of fiber optical distribution rings; a single network node (NN) for generating all optical carrier signals transmitted across said optical feeder ring and said plurality of fiber optical distribution rings; at least one access node (AN) for permitting only selected wavelengths of said optical carrier signals to be transmitted along said at least one fiber optical distribution ring, said network node and said at least one access node connected via said fiber optical feeder ring; and at least one end station (ES) comprising a receiver for downstream packets and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for amplifying and modulating light to create upstream data, said end station connected via said fiber optical distribution ring to said at least one access node, wherein a user terminal in said plurality of user terminals is attached to said at least one end station, wherein said SOA is wavelength independent and impresses data on the optical carrier signals provided to a wavelength independent modulator by said network node, and wherein said SOA is used as a channel equalizer in order to compensate for a loss in said fiber optical distribution ring and associated optical components allowing said SOA to be shared over all wavelengths.