Patent ID: 8611745

Claim:
A passive optical network (PON) communication system, comprising: a line termination unit; and a plurality of subscriber units provided with access to the line termination unit through a passive optical coupler, the line termination unit including: a first section for generating a downstream code division multiplex (CDM) signal including a plurality of downstream code channels, transmitting the downstream CDM signal to the subscriber units, and receiving an upstream CDM signal including a plurality of upstream code channels from the subscriber units, the upstream and downstream CDM signals occupying a first wavelength band; a second section for generating a downstream time division multiplex (TDM) signal including a plurality of downstream time slots, transmitting the downstream TDM signal to the subscriber units in a second wavelength band separate from the first wavelength band, and receiving an upstream TDM signal including a plurality of upstream time slots from the subscriber units in a third wavelength band separate from the first and second wavelength bands, the second section including a wavelength separation filter for separating the second wavelength band from the third wavelength band; and a wavelength multiplexing filter for combining the downstream CDM signal with the downstream TDM signal, and for separating the upstream CDM signal from the upstream TDM signal by separating the first wavelength band from the second and third wavelength bands, wherein the downstream CDM signal occupies a plurality of downstream CDM time slots such that different parts of the downstream CDM signal occupying different ones of the downstream CDM time slots are receivable and decodable by different ones of the subscriber units, each downstream CDM time slot including at least two of the downstream code channels, and the different parts of the downstream CDM signal that are receivable and decodable by the different ones of the subscriber units occupy different ones of the downstream CDM time slots, and the upstream CDM signal occupies a plurality of upstream CDM time slots such that the different ones of the subscriber units transmit different parts of the upstream CDM signal occupying different ones of the upstream CDM time slots, each upstream CDM time slot including at least two of the upstream code channels.