Hybrid passive optical network

A hybrid Passive Optical Network (PON) comprising:

• a central office for:
• multiplexing a plurality of optical signals, each of which including at least one subchannel;
• and
• outputting the multiplexed optical signals as a downstream optical signal and
• a remote node for:
• wavelength-division-demultiplexing the downstream optical signal received from the central office to generate a plurality of optical signals, each of the optical signals is associated with a group of optical network units,
• outputting individual optical signals to the optical network units of the to group associated with a specific one of the optical signals,
• receiving from each of optical network units electrical signals,
• generating corresponding upstream optical signals modulated into upstream subcarriers of a corresponding group input from the optical network units of the group, and
• outputting the generated upstream optical signals to the central office, and a plurality of optical network units receiving an associated optical signal for:
• obtaining corresponding downstream subcarriers by filtering the downstream subcarriers of the group, and
• outputting corresponding upstream subcarriers to the remote node.