Abstract: A unique time slot is assigned to each of a plurality of wavelengths emitted by a single, centralized wavelength division multiplexed optical source to provide a "bit interleaved" WDM signal. In accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the thus-developed bit-interleaved WDM signal is replicated in cascaded stages of amplification and power splitting before data is encoded for respective frequency dependent receivers as, for example, a plurality of passive optical networks. Because the output of the optical source need not be encoded with data for the respective receivers until after many stages of splitting and amplification, a small number of time division multiplexing (TDM) modulators synchronized to the source may be used to deliver data to potentially tens of thousands of subscribers.