An optical communication equipment comprises shared optical sources 88a
88d to be shared by communication nodes 100a 100d, the wavelengths of
optical signals 76a 76d are converted into desired wavelengths .lamda.a
.lamda.d according to the addressed information of the corresponding
optical label signals 77a 77d by using the shared optical sources 88a
88d, and routed to the addressed communication nodes without being
converted into electrical signals by using the wavelength routing
function of the cyclic-wavelength arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) 120.
The load of each communication node can be reduced by incorporating the
multi-wavelength optical sources, which can be shared among individual
communication nodes, into the router 80. Further, each communication node
is provided with an optical gate or the like for returning the optical
signal to the communication node from which the optical signal has been
transmitted through the router 80 in order to adjust the transmission
time lag between the optical signal and the corresponding optical label
signal by the controllers 110a 110d.