Passive optical network

A head-end station for a passive optical network system arranged to transmit downstream time division multiple access (TDMA) frames and receive upstream TDMA frames, said head-end station comprising a TDMA master and an optical stage connected to the TDMA master, the TDMA master comprising means for assembling incoming data into downstream TDMA frames and means for demultiplexing upstream TDMA frames, the optical stage being arranged to be connected to a fiber network and comprising an optical transmitter arranged to modulate an optical signal with downstream TDMA frames output by the TDMA master, and an optical receiver arranged to detect an optical signal carrying upstream TDMA frames, said head-end station further comprising:

• at least one further optical stage connected to the TDMA master being arranged to be connected to a respective fiber network, and having an optical transmitter arranged to modulate an optical signal with said downstream TDMA frames output by the TDMA master, and a demultiplexing means for demultiplexing each received upstream TDMA frame, and wherein a data output of the TDMA master is connected in common to respective inputs of the transmitters of the plurality of optical stages, and the outputs of the receivers of the plurality of optical stages are connected in parallel to a data input of the TDMA master.