Universal digital card (UDC) for use as digital donor card or digital distribution card

A node of a distributed antenna system (DAS) comprising:

• a universal digital card (UDC) comprising:
• an external digital interface to communicatively couple the UDC to an external communication link used to transmit and receive data in any of a plurality of different external interface formats;
• and
• wherein the UDC is configured to:
• receive data formatted according to any of the plurality of external interfaces formats from the external communication link via the external digital interface;
• and
• transmit communicate the converted data formatted according to any of the plurality of external interface formats over the external communication link via the external digital interface;
• and
• wherein the UDC is configured to be selectively used either as:
• a donor card to communicatively couple the node to one or more base station entities via the external digital interface;
• or
• a distribution card to communicatively couple the node to one or more non-DAS nodes, hubs, switches, or remote radio heads or one or more other DAS nodes or access points.