Systems and methods for providing processing diversity transponder signals with distributed electronics

A distributed antenna system comprising:

• a first remote transceiver unit (RTU) connected to a first antenna and comprising:
• a first field programmable gate array (FPGA)/digital signal provider (DSP) configured to receive a first digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal, corresponding to a first RF signal, comprising an interrogation, from the first antenna;
• a second RTU connected to a second antenna and comprising:
• a second FPGA/DSP configured to receive a second digital IF signal, corresponding to a second RF signal, comprising the interrogation, from the second antenna;
• and
• a remote FPGA/DSP configured to receive a first signal corresponding to the first RF signal and to receive a second signal corresponding to the second RF signal;
• wherein the remote FPGA/DSP comprises comparison logic configured to determine which of the first antenna and the second antenna will transmit a reply to the interrogation.

A method of response to an interrogation received by a distributed antenna system, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a first antenna, a first radio frequency (RF) signal, comprising an interrogation, at a first remote transceiver unit (RTU);
• receiving, from a second antenna, a second RF signal, comprising the interrogation, at a second RTU disposed apart from the first RTU;
• at a FPGA/DSP, receiving a first digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal, corresponding to the first RF signal and receiving a second digital IF signal, corresponding to the second RF signal;
• the FPGA/DSP determining which of the first antenna and the second antenna will transmit a reply to the interrogation, based on a comparison of the first digital RF signal and the second digital RF signal.