Method and apparatus for inserting and extracting sets of signals into and from a signal stream

摘要

A method and apparatus in an optical network unit for identifying signals for a set of communication devices in a signal stream having signals for a number of different sets of communication devices. Each optical network unit ONU (335) includes a common control unit CCU (350) which uses a content addressable memory CAM for identifying sets of signals that need to be extracted from the signal stream and transmitted to a first set (392, 394, 396, 398) of communication devices; and identifying time periods for inserting sets of signals from a first set of communication devices into a signal stream.