System and method for communicating optical signals upstream and downstream between a data service provider and subscribers

A method for communicating optical signals from at least one subscriber to a data service provider comprising the steps of:

• passively transmitting upstream optical signals with a slicer from an optical tap, the optical tap selecting a first set of wavelengths;
• receiving the upstream optical signals from a single optical waveguide at a bandwidth transforming node from the optical tap;
• converting the upstream optical signals to electrical signals at the bandwidth transforming node;
• combining upstream electrical signals in the bandwidth transforming node;
• apportioning bandwidth with a routing device in an electrical domain for the first and second subscriber in the bandwidth transforming node;
• using a look-up table with the routing device for processing the upstream electrical signals without any formatting and reformatting of data into two or more different formats performed by digital signal processors and interpolators, and without the routing device performing any optical wavelength availability analysis;
• and
• propagating the combined upstream electrical signals to the data service provider.

A method for communicating optical signals from a data service provider to at least one subscriber comprising the steps of:

• dividing the downstream electrical signals with a routing device between preassigned multiplexers in the bandwidth transforming node, the preassigned multiplexers corresponding to a grouping of subscribers;
• multiplexing the downstream electrical signals at the preassigned multiplexers;
• assigning wavelength for a single optical tap;
• apportioning bandwidth with the routing device in the electrical domain between subscribers in the bandwidth transforming node;
• using a look-up table with the routing device for processing the downstream electrical signals without any formatting and reformatting of data into two or more different formats performed by digital signal processors and interpolators, and without the routing device performing any optical wavelength availability analysis;
• converting the downstream electrical signals to optical signals in a wavelength region assigned for each respective optical tap;
• and
• propagating respective combined downstream optical signals to at least one subscriber along at least one optical waveguide.