Optically amplified TDMA distributive switch network with 2.488 Gbit/s capacity offering interconnection to over 1000 customers at 2 Mbit/s

An optically amplified distributive switch network based on a simplex passive optical network is described. The capacity is 2.488 Gbits/s and the loss budget is 72 dB, sufficient for more than 1000 customers to be served with an individual capacity of 2 Mbit/s. Effectively only a single stage of amplification is used with no optical filtering.