Patent ID: 7330888

Claim:
A communications network arrangement for transporting traffic between a distribution network and end user terminals, the communications network arrangement comprising: (a) a central office distribution network unit operatively connected to the distribution network for sending and receiving network traffic to and from the distribution network, said central office distribution network unit including: (i) a traffic processor configured to process received network traffic and perform traffic management functions including traffic scheduling according to quality of service and traffic contract considerations and provide processed user traffic streams associated with said respective end user terminals and carrying corresponding identifiers; (ii) a first control unit for generating control messages; (iii) a multiplexer/demultiplexer for multiplexing the processed traffic received from the distribution network and the control messages into a multiplexed output traffic stream and demultiplexing multiplexed traffic received from the end user terminals into separate traffic streams; (b) at least one remote network unit, the or each remote network unit including: (i) a multiplexer/demultiplexer for multiplexing traffic streams received from the end user terminals and demultiplexing the multiplexed traffic stream received from the central office distribution network unit into separate user traffic streams destined for said respective end user terminals in accordance with said identifiers and a control traffic stream; (ii) transceivers for sending said separate user traffic streams to said end user terminals over local loops in accordance with their corresponding identifier and receiving traffic streams from said end user terminals destined for said distribution network; (iii) a second control unit controlling operation of said transceivers in response to control messages received from said central office network distribution unit; and (iv) said multiplexer/demultiplexer routing said control traffic stream to said second control unit; and (c) a transmission link operatively connected between the central office distribution network unit and said at least one remote network unit for carrying traffic between the central office distribution network unit and said remote network unit as a multiplexed stream of transfer units selected from the group consisting of cells, packets and frames, said transmission link having a higher bandwidth capacity than said local loops.