Telecommunication networks

A Network has a non-ring architecture and is based on a transmission medium having a broadband electromagnetic spectrum and has a plurality of transmitters, each transmitter being locked to a specific wavelength and transmitting a regular frame sequence of Data Bursts, each Data Burst containing a Preamble and Tributary Identification Number. There is also a plurality of receivers each receiver being tuneable to any of the transmitters and each receiver being tuned in a corresponding definable regular frame sequence to some or all of the transmitters in order to receive the Data Bursts intended for that receiver. The Network typically uses either optical transmission via a Passive Optical Network (PON), or a radio transmission network.