Patent ID: 8249456

Claim:
An optical ring network, comprising: a number (p) of multi-add/drop filters, each multi-add/drop filter being coupled to two other multi-add/drop filters to form a ring, wherein each of the multi-add/drop filters comprises a symmetrical pair of frequency routers; and a number (p) of terminal stations, each terminal station being associated with a different one of the multi-add/drop filters, wherein each terminal station receives information from its associated multi-add/drop filter (p) through a single transmission medium, wherein a first one of the terminal stations receives information from a second different one of the terminal stations via a multi-add/drop filter associated with the second different one of the terminal stations and sends information to a third different one of the terminal stations via a multi-add/drop filter associated with the third different one of the terminal stations; wherein each terminal station is capable of communicating with each other terminal station simultaneously using wavelength division multiplexing and N−1 wavelengths, where N is an integer greater than 1.