A radio-over-fiber (ROF) wireless picocellular system adapted to form an array of substantially non-overlapping individual picocells by operating adjacent picocells at different frequencies is operated to form one or more combined picocells. The combined picocells are formed from two or more neighboring picocells by the central head-end station operating neighboring picocells at a common frequency. Communication between the central head-end station and a client device residing within a combined picocell is enhanced by the availability of two or more transponder antenna systems. Thus, enhancedcommunication techniques such as antenna diversity, phased-array antenna networks and multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) methods can be implemented to provide the system with enhanced performance capability. These techniques are preferably implemented at the central head-end station to avoid having to make substantial changes to the wireless picocellular system infrastructure.