Patent ID: 7382982

Claim:
An Ethernet-PON (Passive Optical Network) for integrating broadcast and communication based on a TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) scheme, an OLT (Optical Line Terminal) configured (i) to perform a switching operation on a plurality of digital broadcast/image data received from an external broadcast provider according to respective broadcast/image selection information transmitted from users, (ii) to perform a time division multiplexing on the digital broadcast/image data to convert the digital broadcast/image data into a broadcast/image signal, (iii) to perform a frame-multiplexing on the broadcast/image signal and communication data received through an IP (Internet Protocol) network into a single frame, (iv) to electro-optically convert the single frame, and (v) to transmit the electro-optically converted signal; a plurality of ONTs (Optical Network Terminals), each ONT adapted to receive an optical signal from the OLT, the ONT configured to photoelectrically convert the received optical signal, to perform a frame & time-slot demultiplexing on the photoelectrically converted signal, to output the communication data and the selected broadcast/image data included in the photoelectrically converted signal to a corresponding user, and to receive a communication signal and the broadcast/image selection information from one of the users to output them to the OLT; and an optical splitter arranged in a path between the OLT and the plurality of ONTs, said optical splitter splitting a signal from the OLT into the plurality of ONTs, coupling signals from the plurality of ONTs, and transmitting the coupled signal to the OLT; and wherein the OLT includes: a broadcast/image channel selection switch configured to receive and switching external MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) broadcast and image data, a broadcast/image time-slot multiplexer configured to assign broadcast/image channels, output from the broadcast/image channel selection switch, to a time-slot assigned to each user so as to multiplex the channels; an Ethernet-PON OLT function processor configured to perform Ethernet-PON OLT functions; an IP router configured to route a communication signal to an upper level IP network or to the Ethernet-PON OLT function processor; an Ethernet time-slot matching buffer configured to store the communication data from the Ethernet-PON OLT function processor that is transmitted to the OLT and to prepare the communication data to be frame multiplexed; a frame multiplexer configured to multiplex the time-slot-multiplexed broadcast/image signal from the broadcast/image time-slot multiplexer and the communication signal stored in the Ethernet time-slot matching buffer into a single frame; a first optical transmitter configured to optically modulate a frame-multiplexed signal outputted from the frame multiplexer, and transmitting the modulated signal as an optical signal of λ DOWN ; and a first optical receiver configured to receive an optical signal from the ONTs and converting the optical signal into an electrical signal.