Use of a fibre loop reflector as downstream receiver and upstream modulator in passive optical network

The use of a fibre loop reflector, incorporating a photodiode and birefringence modulator, is reported as the basis of a potentially low-cost customer terminal in a passive optical network. The novel customer terminal could be applied in supporting downstream video distribution combined with bidirectional low-capacity services, such as telephony, and upstream customer is signalling for video channel selection.