US Patent 7974533 Long reach optical network

An optical network is provided including a first optical network section operatively coupled to a carrier facility configured to transmit traffic onto channels in the first optical network section. A second optical network section may be operatively coupled to the first optical network section at a first node. Additionally, the second optical network section may be operatively coupled to a customer location at a second node. The first and second nodes may include tunable filters for passing traffic via at least one channel from the first optical network section to the second optical network section.