Constellations of distributors interconnect access nodes to form a vast contiguous network. The access nodes are generally geographically spread and the constellations are generally geographically spread, however the distributors within each constellation are collocated. The access nodes are arranged into access groups. The access nodes of each access group interconnect through selected constellations, with each access node having a wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) link to each of the selected constellations, to form a three-stage network. The three-stage networks corresponding to the access groups are mutually fused so that an access node of any three-stage network has multiple paths, each traversing one distributor, to each other access node of the same three-stage network and a path to each other access node of the entire network traversing one distributor. The distributors are preferable configured as fast optical switches. The network is structured to provide global coverage without the need for conventional cross-connectors.