Voice and data distribution system with fiber optic multinode star network

Claim 1

A fiber optic multinode star network for a voice and data distribution system characterized in that it includes a virtual star center node having n·m inlets and n·m outlets, said virtual star center node comprising m pairs of transmission type nodal optical couplers each having n inputs and n outputs and whose totality constitutes a multiple node star center distributed over a certain area, each of said m pairs of transmission type nodal optical couplers constituting one node pair of said multinode star center and being connected according to the following criteria: (a) the n outputs of the transmission side of the first node pair are subdivided into m different first groups, each of said first groups being respectively linked by a respective first set of n/m optical fibers to the first n/m inputs of the reception side of each respective node pair; (b) the n outputs of the transmission side of the second node pair are subdivided into m different second groups, each of said second groups being respectively linked by a respective second set of n/m optical fibers to the second n/m inputs of the reception side of each respective node pair; (c) the n outputs of the transmission side of each remaining ith node pair are subdivided into m different respective ith groups, each of said ith groups being respectively linked by a respective ith set of n/m optical fibers to the ith n/m inputs of the reception side of each respective node pair.