DISTRIBUTING WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SIGNALS OVER METROPOLITAN TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS

A method of wireless communication comprising: at a digital hub (310), producing, from downlink carrier signals, formatted downlink digital carrier signals according to a digital network protocol and sending the formatted downlink digital carrier signals to a remote site (330) via a digital network (320), and receiving formatted uplink digital carrier signals sent from the remote site (330) over the digital network (320); wherein each downlink carrier signal comprises one or more downlink information channels for wireless communication to one or more subscriber units, and wherein the base stations transmit downlink carrier signals and receive uplink carrier signals; the method characterized in that the method further comprises: at a network access node (340) at the remote site (330), producing downlink digital carrier signals from the formatted downlink digital carrier signals and sending the downlink digital carrier signals via a local digital link (360) to antenna units (350) at the remote site, wherein each of the antenna units is separated from the network access node by a respective distance, and receiving uplink digital carrier signals from the antenna units (350) via the local digital link (360) and sending the formatted uplink digital carrier signals over the digital network (320); at each of the antenna units (350), converting at least one of the downlink digital carrier signals to an analog downlink carrier signal, frequency up-converting and amplifying the analog downlink carrier signal to produce a downlink RF carrier signal and transmitting the downlink RF carrier signal from an antenna to at least one subscriber unit, and receiving uplink RF carrier signals from at least one antenna and converting the uplink RF carrier signals to the uplink digital carrier signals.