Patent ID: 7706685

Claim:
An optical communication system providing communication of information, comprising: a plurality of communication nodes, each node configured to transmit and receive optical signals containing addressing information and data, wherein the nodes include an optical attenuator to allow for amplitude modulation of an output signal thereby allowing for addressing information to be amplitude modulated on the optical signals while the data is carried by a second modulation scheme, thus creating the optical signals which contain both the addressing information and data, the nodes further including a decoder to decode both addressing information and data when received; an optical switch connected to the plurality of communication nodes and capable of receiving the data from the plurality of nodes and directing the data back to the plurality of nodes in a desired manner, the optical switch being configurable to achieve the desired direction of data based upon at least one received control signal; and a switch controller operably connected to the optical switch and the plurality of nodes, wherein the switch controller receives the optical signal and decodes the amplitude modulated addressing information, thereafter producing the at least one control signal which is transmitted to the optical switch causing the switch to be appropriately configured to allow the desired directing of data, and the switch controller for further producing arbitration control signals which are transmitted back to the nodes to control communication within the system.