Evolved distributed antenna system

A host unit for use within a distributed antenna system (DAS) having a plurality of remote units communicatively coupled to the host unit, the host unit comprising:

• a baseband interface backplane having a plurality of backplane connectors, each backplane connector configured for insertion of a radio frequency (RF) channel module;
• a switch configured to convert between one or more serial data streams for the remote units and baseband digital signals, wherein the baseband digital signals comprise a digital representation of an RF channel at baseband;
• a first RF channel module inserted into a first of the backplane connectors, the first RF channel module including a digital-to-analog RF transceiver to convert between an RF signal of a base station and a baseband digital signal;
• and
• a second RF channel module inserted into a second of the backplane connectors, the second RF channel module including a base transceiver station configured to receive downstream Internet Protocol (IP) data and perform baseband processing on the downstream IP data to generate the downstream baseband digital signal, and to receive an upstream digital baseband signal and perform baseband processing on the upstream baseband digital signal to generate IP data.