Patent ID: 7324753

Claim:
An optical communication network, comprising: a plurality of transceivers, each of which converts an inputted electrical signal into an optical signal that is spread by using a spreading code and then outputs this optical signal; an optical coupler, which inputs spread optical signals from the transceivers and multiplexes these signals; and a terminal that inputs the multiplexed optical signal from the optical coupler and convert the multiplexed optical signal to the pre-spreading electrical signals by using the spreading codes; wherein the optical communication network has a star-type topology that includes: an accommodation device in which the terminal is mounted; the optical coupler connected to the terminal; and a plurality of communication terminals which are connected to the optical coupler; wherein: the accommodation device comprises a plurality of ports; each of the ports is connected to a corresponding terminal; each of the terminals is connected to a corresponding optical coupler; and each of the optical couplers is connected to a corresponding plurality of transceivers; wherein each of the plurality of transceivers connected to the same optical coupler uses a mutually different spreading code; wherein the terminal performs signal separation of the optical signal by carrying out inversions which correspond to all the transceivers accommodated in the terminal; wherein the terminal time-division multiplexes a plurality of electrical signals obtained by the signal separation and then sending the time-division multiplexed signals to the accommodation device; and multiplexing of the terminal is performed by using: a buffer for temporarily storing electrical signals obtained by the signal separation; and a MUX circuit for sequentially reading out and transmitting electrical signals thus stored in the buffer.