SYSTEM AND METHOD PROVIDING A SEPARATE CONTROL CHANNEL FOR A WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXED NETWORK

摘要

A network (FIGURE 1) including a control channel source node (12(1)-12(N)) and a plurality of control channel destination nodes (12(1)-12(N)) is interconnected by communications media in the form of a ring. The control and control channel destination nodes transfer information over a plurality of channels using wavelength-division multiplex techniques. The control channel source node transmits control information to all of the control channel destination nodes over a unitary control channel, and each of the control channel destination nodes drains off a portion of the energy of the signal comprising the control channel to facilitate decoding and processing of the control information contained therein (FIGURE 2). Each of the aspects, the control channel destination nodes can also generate status information for transfer to the control channel source node over the control channel. The control channel source node drains off the energy of the signal comprising the control channel to facilitate decoding and processing of the status information contained therein (FIGURE 3).