Patent ID: 7340176

Claim:
An optical telecommunications network, of metropolitan area type, comprising: a ring type core comprising at least one optical fibre for the transport, in a given direction of propagation, of information-carrying optical signals; secondary rings, each secondary ring being connected to the core by a corresponding signal insertion means and a corresponding signal extraction means, these means being inserted in the core fibre; at least one first sending access node, connected to the core via a secondary ring and the corresponding insertion means, this sending access node comprising means for sending information-carrying optical signals; at least one second destination access node, connected to the core via a secondary ring and the corresponding extraction means, this destination access node comprising means for receiving information-carrying optical signals; wherein: in each sending access node, the means for sending information-carrying optical signals use a wavelength belonging to a group of wavelengths dedicated to the secondary ring to which this sending access node is connected; in each destination access node, the receiving means are capable of receiving all the wavelengths used by sending nodes of the network; the insertion means comprise all-optical means for inserting, into the core fibre, optical signals sent by each sending access node connected to the corresponding secondary ring; and the extraction means comprise optical couplers for taking from the core fibre a representative signal formed of a fraction of the power of each information-carrying signal, these couplers being respectively coupled to said receiving means, of the destination nodes, the network further comprising a number of sending access nodes connected to a same secondary ring, wherein the wavelengths dedicated to the sending nodes connected to the same secondary ring are contained in at least one predetermined waveband reserved for said same secondary ring.