Patent ID: 7155126

Claim:
An apparatus for providing dynamic bandwidth control to a broadcast optical communications network, comprising: a network element to communicate downstream to users, comprising: a demultiplexer to separate a received optical communications signal, carrying a mixture of broadcast and targeted communications services for users, into a plurality of wavelengths; a plurality of splitters, each splitter to receive one of said plurality of wavelengths as an input signal, and to split said input signal into a plurality of output signals; at least one optical cross-connect switch to receive said plurality of output signals from said splitters, and to connect each output signal respectively to a pre-determined output port; and a plurality of combiners, each combiner having at least one more input signal than the number of output signals for each said splitter wherein the at least one more input signal carries at least one control channel, operating on a control wavelength, to control selection of the pre-determined output ports by which the switch, and each combiner to receive, combine, and output a plurality of said output signals from said switch.