Communication network node, optical rf holographic beam forming network, communication network and method of transmitting an rf signal

Abstract

A communication network node (100) comprising: an antenna array (104) comprising a plurality of radiating elements (106); a plurality of photodiodes (108) connected to the radiating elements; an optical delay line (110) configured to receive an optical carrier signal modulated with an RF signal; and a plurality of optical splitters (112) provided along the optical delay line, the optical splitters configured to split off portions of the optical carrier signal to form a plurality of optical output signals and to deliver the optical output signals to the photodiodes. The photodiodes are configured to recover respective portions of the RF signal from the optical output signals and to deliver said portions of the RF signal to the radiating elements. The optical delay line is configured to time delay the optical carrier signal between variable optical splitters to phase shift the RF signal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.