Patent ID: 8867919

Claim:
A radio over fiber (RoF) wireless picocellular system, comprising: a head-end unit configured to be operably connected to an outside network and receive downlink signals from the outside network; a plurality of tail cables, each of the tail cables comprising a plurality of optical fibers; a distribution unit optically coupled to the head-end unit via a primary optical fiber RF communications link, the distribution unit configured to divide the primary optical fiber RF communication link into the plurality of tail cables and direct the downlink signals onto the tail cables; a plurality of multi-port accumulators, each of the plurality of multi-port accumulators receiving a respective tail cable among the plurality of tail cables, and each of the plurality of multi-port accumulators comprising at least two transponders, each transponder configured to direct uplink and downlink signals, wherein each of the at least two transponders is coupled to the primary optical fiber RF communication link via at least two of the plurality of optical fibers in the respective tail cable, and each of the at least two transponders and is configured to form a picocell coverage area and to wirelessly communicate with a client device within the picocell coverage area using the uplink and downlink signals; and wherein each multi-port accumulator among the plurality of multi-port accumulators further comprises: a housing including a plurality of sidewalls, at least a portion of the plurality of sidewalls includes a plurality of transponder connector ports, and a tail cable port configured to be optically and electrically coupled to one of the plurality of tail cables, such that individual optical fibers of the plurality of optical fibers in each tail cable are coupled from the tail cable port to respective transponder connector ports; and wherein the at least two transponders for each multi-port accumulator among the plurality of multi-port accumulators are each optically and electrically connected to one of the plurality of transponder connector ports for the respective multi-port accumulator.