Optical communication system with two parallel transmission paths

A link as claimed in any previous claim, characterised in that said splitter (60) is a fused fibre coupler.

A link as claimed in any previous claim, characterised in that the splitting ratio of said splitter (60) is at most 1:99.

An optical communications link including a first node (30, A) having a transmitter arrangement (50) and a second node (30, E) having two receivers (40), and two optical fibre transmission paths (100, 200) connected between said first node and the receivers of said second node for providing a working traffic path and a backup traffic path, characterised by an optical splitter (60) coupling said optical fibre paths to said transmission arrangement (50), said splitter being arranged to divide the signal power from said transmitter arrangement unequally between said working and backup signal paths.

An optical communication network including a plurality of nodes (30) each including a transmitter arrangement (50) and two receiver arrangements (40), a pair of optical fibres (10, 20) being arranged to interconnect said nodes (30) and form a working transmission path and at least one protection transmission path (100, 200) between the transmitter arrangement of a first node and the receiver arrangements of a second node (30), characterised in that each node (30) includes signal splitter means (60) connecting said transmitter arrangement (50) to said two optical fibres (10, 20), wherein the splitter means in at least one node is arranged to divide the signal power unevenly between said working and protection transmission paths.

A node for connection in an optical communications network, said node including transmission means (50) connected to at least two optical fibres, characterised by a signal power splitting arrangement (60) coupled between said transmission means and said optical fibres, the splitting arrangement being adapted to split the signal power unevenly between said optical fibres.

An optical communication link including a first node (30, A) having transmission means (50) and a second node (30, E) with receiving means (40) and at least first and second optical fibre transmission paths (10, 20) connected in parallel between said first and second nodes, characterised by a variable optical signal splitter (60) for coupling signals from said transmitting means (50) to said at least two optical fibre paths, said splitter being adjustable to divide the signal power from said transmitting means so as to substantially equalise the signal power received through each optical fibre path.