British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

Kevin D Stalley

Donald E Clarke

Paul Adrian Rosher

An optical fibre communications system includes a head end connected to n customers by an optical fibre network. The head end has a transmitter unit and a receiver unit, and each of the customers has an optical network unit with an optical receiver and a transmitter unit. The head end transmitter and receiver units are connected respectively to the receivers and the transmitter units of the customer optical network units by at least one passive optical network. The head end transmitter unit includes an optical transmitter driven by a sub-carrier multiplexer, the sub-carrier multiplexer having a plurality of input sub-carriers at different frequencies. One of the sub-carriers carries interactive signals provided by a further optical transmitter unit. The remaining sub-carriers carry broadband service signals. Each customer transmitter unit includes an optical transmitter and apparatus for multiplexing interactive signals and control signals to drive the optical transmitter. The head end includes a system control unit for controlling the transmission of broadband services by the head end transmitter unit in dependence upon the control signals received by the head end receiver unit from the customer transmitter units.

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Suffolk, United Kingdom

Kevin D Stalley