In a fiber-optic network having a first fiber and a second fiber, a T-connection repeater provides connection to a plurality of terminal devices. The T-connection fiber-optical repeater has converters for generating optical signals to be distributed to terminal devices connected the repeater, and redundant optical-to-electrical converters for receiving optical signals from the terminal devices. Reliability is markedly increased by including one or two mixing stars in the fiber system between the converter and the repeaters. The number of converters and supporting circuitry can be reduced by coupling more than one fiber from the star or stars of each converter. Monitoring opical-to-electrical converters can be coupled to the stars in order to detect failure of electrical-to-optical converters connected to the stars.
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