Patent ID: 6889007

Claim:
A method of operating a data communication apparatus comprising: at each of a plurality of service specific transceivers; receiving a plurality of input signals from a given plurality of data communications devices operating with a given data communication protocol; aggregating each of said received plurality of input signals to result in a given service specific electrical signal; transmitting said given service specific electrical signal to a wavelength access controller; at said wavelength access controller; classifying each of said plurality of service specific electrical signals; receiving a plurality of service specific electrical signals from a plurality of service specific transceivers, at least two of said service specific transceivers operating with different data communication protocols; converting said plurality of service specific electrical signals to a corresponding plurality of service specific optical signals; wavelength division multiplexing said plurality of service specific optical signals to result in a wavelength division multiplexed signal; and transmitting said wavelength division multiplexed signal over an optical conductor to an element of an optical transport network.