Systems and methods presented herein provide for optical communications. In one embodiment, a communication system includes a plurality of communication nodes and a communication hub. A bundle of optical fibers optically links the nodes to the communication hub. The communication hub includes a laser operable to propagate unmodulated laser light to a first node along a first of the optical fibers in the bundle. The first node is operable to modulate the laser light with a first modulating signal source, and to propagate the modulated laser light to a second node. The second node is communicatively coupled to a second modulating signal source and to the first node. The second node is operable to optically combine upstream communications from the second modulating signal source with the modulated laser light from the first node, and to propagate the modulated laser light with the upstream communications to the communication hub at a same carrier wavelength.