Fiber optic telephone loop network

Claim 1

A cost optimized digital telephone loop network connecting a switch in a central switching office and a plurality of individual homes, comprising: a remote fiber terminal located at said central switching office and including multiplexer/demultiplexer means for converting electrical signals from the switch into multiplexed digital optical signals and vice versa; between one to sixteen fiber service terminal means, each located substantially near a group of said plurality of homes, each of said fiber service terminal means including multiplexer/demultiplexer means for converting said multiplexed optical signals into demultiplexed individual optical home signals and vice versa and a plurality of surface light emitting diodes for transmitting said individual optical signal to and from said plurality of homes; single mode fiber optic feeder cables connecting said remote terminal and plurality of fiber service terminal means for transmitting said multiplexed optical signals into said fiber service terminal means; a small number of passive optical splitter/combiner means on any of the single mode fiber optic feeder cables for splitting and combining said multiplexed optical signals to and from said plurality of fiber service terminal means, the split rate of each splitter/combiner means being less than one-to-four; a plurality of pairs of multimode fiber optic drops, each pair optically connecting one of said plurality of fiber service terminal means and one individual home of said plurality of homes, by way of said plurality of surface light emitting diodes, one drop within each pair being for transmitting said demultiplexed individual home optical signal to said individual home and the other drop of the pair being for receiving individual home optical signal from said individual home; house optical terminal means, each located at said individual home and including an individual line card which contains a surface light emitting diode for converting said demultiplexed individual home optical signal into a home electrical signal and vice versa, and electrical drops, each connecting a fiber service terminal means and said individual home for supplying the electrical power to its house optical terminal means.