Spectrum management system

• US 7,958,041 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2008
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Spectrum Bridge, Inc.
• Inventors: Stanforth, Peter, Koos, Larry W., Koos, William W., Hamilla, Joseph M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish N
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAMILTON, SARA CHANDLER
• Application Number:
  US12/042,660
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/90 Financial instruments for climate change mitigation, e.g. environmental taxes, subsidies or financing

Abstract

Transferring spectrum use rights may include ascertaining information regarding available spectrum for use in wireless communications. A request for spectrum use from a spectrum user system may be matched with available spectrum. A spectrum certificate may be issued to the spectrum user system, where the spectrum certificate contains at least one spectrum-related variable under which the spectrum user system is to engage in wireless communications.

Claims

1. A spectrum management system over which spectrum use rights are transferred from a spectrum holder to a spectrum user, comprising:

a computer-implemented broker apparatus configured to match available spectrum with spectrum need;

a spectrum holder apparatus configured to communicate available spectrum to the broker apparatus in terms of a time dimension, a geography dimension and a frequency dimension as a temporary release of spectrum use rights; and

a wireless radio apparatus having a need for spectrum and configured to communicate the need for spectrum to the broker apparatus;

wherein the broker apparatus includes;

an expert system configured to;

treat the available spectrum as one or more spectrum commodity items that each are expressed in terms of the time dimension, the geography dimension and the frequency dimension that combine to define an available spectrum fragment; and

automatically match the need for spectrum with at least a portion of one of the spectrum commodity items; and

a certificate generator configured to, from the matched portion of the spectrum commodity item, generate a spectrum certificate that defines a fragment of spectrum for wireless communications by the wireless radio apparatus in terms of the time dimension, the frequency dimension and the geography dimension, and to transmit the spectrum certificate to the wireless radio apparatus to complete temporary release of spectrum use rights from the spectrum holder apparatus to the wireless radio apparatus; and

wherein the wireless radio apparatus includes a certificate agent configured to control wireless communications of the wireless radio apparatus in accordance with the spectrum fragment defined by the spectrum certificate.

2. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the spectrum holder apparatus includes:

a spectrum supply analyzer configured to analyze spectrum usage data in a geographic area, identify available spectrum for use in wireless communications based on the analyzed spectrum usage, and construct the spectrum commodity item corresponding to the available spectrum, the spectrum commodity item including a time window in the time dimension, a frequency-based spectral mask in the frequency dimension and a geography-based emission mask in the geography dimension, and further including a transmitted power limit; and

an interface to the broker apparatus configured to communicate the spectrum commodity item to the broker apparatus as the communication of the available spectrum.

3. The spectrum management system of claim 2, wherein the spectrum holder apparatus further includes a plurality of deployed sensors, each sensor configured to collect spectrum usage data that is analyzed by the spectrum supply analyzer.

4. The spectrum management system of claim 2, wherein the spectrum holder apparatus further includes a computer implemented policing system configured to identify wireless communications by the wireless radio apparatus that exceed an authorized use of spectrum, the authorized use corresponding to the time window, the frequency-based spectral mask, the geography-based emission mask and the transmitted power limit that are associated with the spectrum commodity item generated by the spectrum supply analyzer.

5. The spectrum management system of claim 2, wherein the available spectrum that is communicated to the broker apparatus includes at least one of an associated monetary price or an associated non-monetary value.

6. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the wireless radio apparatus includes:

a radio circuit configured to engage in wireless communications;

a spectrum demand analyzer configured to analyze spectrum demand data, to identify spectrum demand by the radio circuit and generate the need that is communicated to the broker apparatus based on the identified spectrum demand; and

an interface to the broker apparatus configured to communicate the need to the broker apparatus.

7. The spectrum management system of claim 6, wherein the wireless radio apparatus includes plural radio devices each having a radio circuit for carrying out the wireless communication.

8. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the spectrum certificate is a data object that specifies the time dimension as a time window, the frequency dimension as a frequency-based spectral mask and the geography dimension as a geography-based emission mask, and the spectrum certificate further includes a transmitted power limit for the wireless radio apparatus.

9. The spectrum management system of claim 6, wherein the need for spectrum is communicated to the broker apparatus in the form of a bid that includes at least one of an associated monetary price or an associated non-monetary value.

10. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the available spectrum is licensed to an entity having authority to release use of the available spectrum to another entity by granting the other entity access to the available spectrum in the form of a temporary permission to use the available spectrum.

11. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the temporary release of spectrum use rights from the spectrum holder to the wireless radio apparatus is without invoking a spectrum lease in a primary market or a secondary market for spectrum.

12. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the fragment of spectrum defined by the spectrum certificate is disaggregated from the spectrum fragment defined by the spectrum commodity item in at least one of the time dimension, the frequency dimension or the geography dimension.

13. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the fragment of spectrum defined by the spectrum certificate is aggregated from plural spectrum commodity items and the plural spectrum commodity items are discontinuous in at least one of the time dimension, the frequency dimension or the geography dimension.

14. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the geography dimension for at least one of the spectrum commodity item or the spectrum certificate is defined in terms of a geography-based emission mask that includes a geographical boundary that a radio operating in accordance with the geography-based emission mask is not permitted to transmit beyond in one of an absolute manner or a relative manner specified by a power value at a geographical location.

15. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the expert system of the broker apparatus, when matching the need for spectrum with the spectrum commodity item, makes no distinction with respect to service rules and regulatory considerations that are associated with the spectrum defined by the spectrum commodity item so that the broker apparatus does not impose restriction on the use of the corresponding spectrum by the wireless radio apparatus.

16. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the expert system of the broker apparatus, when matching the need for spectrum with the spectrum commodity item, matches the need for spectrum with the spectrum commodity item independent of regulatory agency service rules for a communications application and radio type of the wireless radio apparatus by relying on a regulatory agency certification of the wireless radio apparatus to maintain operation of the wireless radio apparatus within the spectrum certificate.

17. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the need for spectrum is specified in terms of at least a time frame and supported frequencies information, and without specification of regulatory rules for a wireless communication application of the wireless radio apparatus.

18. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the need for spectrum is communicated as a specific request for the spectrum commodity item.

19. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the expert system of the broker apparatus, when matching the need for spectrum with the spectrum commodity item, considers interference tolerance of the wireless radio apparatus.

20. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the wireless radio apparatus is self-regulating to comply with the release of spectrum use rights by operating in accordance with the spectrum certificate in a manner that is transparent to a user of the wireless radio apparatus, including during changes in frequency over time, the spectrum certificate used by the wireless radio apparatus to automatically effectuate the change in frequency.

21. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein a determination of the spectrum that is available is automatically made by the spectrum holder apparatus.

22. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein a determination of need for spectrum is automatically made by the wireless radio apparatus.

23. The spectrum management system of claim 1, wherein the spectrum holder apparatus is configured to clear use of the matched spectrum by precluding use of the spectrum for which access has been released to the wireless radio apparatus in the spectrum certificate by the spectrum holder apparatus.