Microwave photonic filters are photonic subsystems designed with the aim of carrying equivalent tasks to those of an ordinary microwave filter within a radio frequency(RF)system or link,bringing supplementary advantages inherent to photonics such as low loss,high bandwidth,immunity to electromagnetic interference(EMI),tunability,and reconfigurability.There is an increasing interest in this subject since,on one hand,emerg-ing broadband wireless access networks and standards spanning from universal mobile telecommunications system(UMTS)to fixed access picocellular networks and including wireless local area network(WLAN),World Interoperability for Microwave Ac-cess,Inc.(WIMAX),local multipoint distribution service(LMDS), [~5<[ 'G
etc.,require an increase in capacity by reducing the coverage area.An enabling technology to obtain this objective is based on WB|N)3-1
radio-over-fiber(RoF)systems where signal processing is carried at a central office to where signals are carried from inexpensive remote antenna units(RAUs).On the other hand,microwave photonic filters can find applications in specialized fields such as .|c=]_{
radar and photonic beamsteering of phased-arrayed antennas,where dynamical reconfiguration is an added value.This paper u"5
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provides a tutorial introduction of this subject to the reader not working directly in the field but interested in getting an overall /oC@ :7
introduction of the subject and also to the researcher wishing to get a comprehensive background before working on the subject.
